Rare N.Z. book prices up

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32461, 23 November 1970, Page 3

Rare N.Z. book prices up

(N.Z. Press Association) WELLINGTON, November 22. Prices for rare New Zealand books have risen steeply in the last 15 years. Several sold at auction in Wellington on Saturday on behalf of various vendors fetched prices double those at sales about three years ago. The auction attracted more than 50 collectors who had to compete for several lots against postal bidders. Several inquiries were received by the auctioneer, Mr A. Harris, from universities and libraries. Although fairly extensively canvassed in Australia, the catalogue failed to attract interest there. Buying trends showed much interest in books on fauna and flora, with history and biography second; For the first 100 books offered the top price was $BO I for an “Art Album of N.Z.

Flora (1889)” by Mr and Mrs E. H. Featon, which sold in September, 1957, for $52 but dropped to $46 in 1961. Among the high-priced works, with the prices previously paid shown in brackets, were T. F. Cheesman’s “Illustrations of New Zealand Flora” in two volumes (1914) which sold for $6O ($4l in 1956); Cowan and Pomare, “Legends of the Maori,” $45 ($23 in 1959); W. Dittmer’s "Te Tohunga 1907,” $25 ($l4 in 1960); V. Hudson’s “Butterflies and Moths of New Zealand” with 62 plates, $45 ($25 in 1958, and by the same

author “New Zealand Beetles and their Larvae” (1934), $2O ($3.50 in 1958); Kate McCosh Clark, “Maori Tales and Legends,” $l6 ($4 in 1960); Bagnall and Petersen, “William Colenso” (1948), $22 ($6 in 1961).