BOOK COLLECTING.

Waipukurau Press, 2 June 1922, Page 4

BOOK COLLECTING.

A LIBRARIAN’S IMPRESSIONS.

FINDS IN QUEER PLACES. Dr. George C. Williamson, who catalogued M. Piermont Morgan’s treasures, writing in the “Weekly Dispatch,’’ says:— •‘Everybody collects something nowadays. The difficulty is to find a p:u-ucul.-tr branch of the art left union.

;y others and to gather a collection tnai. will not only give pleasure ami reveal enterprise, but also will som? day, ifi need demands, fetch more than lie modest sum expended. “Collecting can be a joy, a solace, and a. refreshment, us well as an lip esttn.nl. For instance John Day bought th,' paintings of the Barbizon scbt.j! ami I he' works of such men us Din? Mauve, and Maris, and his family conned great advantage from his disi'ietiea. Mr Yates Thompson, who bought manti scripts wisely, sold many of them !’< i sums far larger than he gave for th.in. There arc many collectors of mezzotints and drawings who.-e •care in buying has been ftmply repaid nt auctions.' “Then, again, there is the delight of p-jzr-luisjng an object which you have long sought- or of completing sets, as did Mr. Morgan when he bought from a casual callyr wju, produced it out of a newspaper parcel a Sevres vase 'which matched one he had possessed for years. ami for which he would gildy have. |r:iil rt auction an enormous sum.

“J myself had odd aud curious experience of this kind. When a si'boolbiiy 1 bought fur fourpence al a bookstall an old volume of a ' rare county history, published in 1719. IL wa.vthe third volume, rather well bound and in clean condition. The work was published in five volumes.

“ I’ive-and-twenty years afterwards my father, who, like myself, bad long desired :i copy of this particular book, purchased in Reading for a large sum a coniji’ete set of the same book in beautiful order. He and 1 looked it over, and I drew his attention to the fact that the third volume was bound just a little (differently from the others, th,'? .variation being slight, but quite clear when it was recognised.

“We went through the set of five books, page by page, and at. the end of the last one found a note by the owner, whose name was inscribed in each, to the effect that he had lent the third volume, soon after publication, about .1750, to a friend, and had never been able to regain it. In consequence he had purchased an odd third volume, nnd had it bound to match the other four as closely as possible.

“At once I declared that I believed I had the missing one. My father laughed the idea to scorn, but on examination mine was found to be the missing volume—separnted from its fellows for over 150 years.

“Changes in value offer another series of romances, of which the recent Brit well sale affords examples. Narcissus Luttrell, a collector and a. bibliographer, who died in .1732, bought many brooks and broadsides, forming an extraordinary collection. He had a habit of marking Inside the books thq price ho paid. A. copy of George Chapman’s ‘Shadow of Night,’ for which he paid 3d. was sold this year for £270. “On the third days’ -ale of the Britwell Library another of Lui troll's'books Gale’s ‘Pyramus and T.hisbe,’ for which he paid 2d, fetched £617. “Another great collector was Richard Heber, who died as recently as 1833, ntt.l many of whose books appeared in the Britwell Library. At his sale, which took place at Sotheby’s in 1831. 1835, and 1936, a copy of Henry Petty.ves’s ‘Fair© Lady of Britaine’ sold for £4 19s; at. the. Britwell sale if realised £3OO. Another of his books, by Dekker, called ’Warren, Wanes. Warres.’ sold for £0 2s (id. Dr. Rosenbtieh gave 250 guineas for it the other day.

“In the Chalmers sale SO years ago a book of Willoughby’s sold for 10 guineas.. This month it fetched £1950; and a Heber book which sold in 1831 for £5 10s, was bought for £960.

“A further instances’of romance, in book collecting,is provided by a tiny voliuiie. only measuring s»i. by 3Ain.,

found in an attic at Sir Charles Isham’s house at Lampora about 189(1. '1 he book contained four little pamphlets' nnd fetched £3600. The most curious occurrcnco in the Britwell sale was provided by (he Marlowe book of ‘Hero and Leander.’ whieh Sotheby's did not even illnslriite. 11 turu.'.'d out (<> In' (he only copy in existence. In 1831? it fetched £1 6s, to-day £lBlO. Dr. Bosenbach, who found out this fact, was the purchaser.