, and _Largest Paper_, the
copy on yellow paper, blue paper, writing paper, on _papier de
Hollande_, _de Chine_, or _d'Inde_, or on Japanese vellum, the very
limited impression, are among the fancies and demands of the
omnivorous past. A short study of the supplement to Bonn's _Lowndes_
and of Martin's _Privately Printed Books_ will suffice to show that
not only a library, but a tolerably extended one, might be formed of
these classes of literature exclusively; and indeed the thing has been
more than once actually done. Utterson, Halliwell, Laing, Maidment,
Eyton, Turnbull, and others have contributed to leave to us a
voluminous inheritance of now rather neglected and undervalued
curiosities of this kind. But even here the discriminating collector
may still advantageously pick out items worth buying and holding, for
in the case of every artificial _furore_ the good, bad, and
indifferent are apt to rise and to fall together, while it is reserved
only for the first to experience a revival--the Revival of the
Fittest.

The Illustrated Copy is an indefinite quantity as to character and
importance or estimation, since no two correspond. Nearly all those
which have been formed are more or less unequal, even where there has
been no regard to cost, and every care has been exercised in the
selection of objects; for there is a chronic tendency to become
complete. But so far as the normal undertaking of this class is
concerned, we usually perceive a few desirable and appropriate prints
or drawings as a sort of _piece de resistance_, and the remainder is
made up anyhow. Even such a book as the Pennant's _London_ in the Huth
Collection strikes us as unsatisfactory on the ground stated; there is
a share of merit in the choice of embellishments; there is also too
considerable a residuum of comparative rubbish; and if it is so here,
the reader may judge how the matter stands with illustrated books of
the ordinary stamp made up for sale. There is one remark to be
offered. The really fine prints and other similar productions are too
valuable to treat in this way, as they would necessarily render the
work, when it was ready for the client, too expensive. A Pennant, for
example, exclusively composed of first-rate material, and tolerably
representative in regard to names and localities, would be worth
thousands of pounds. The time for securing prizes for this purpose at
a moderate figure has gone by. The catalogues advertise copies
"exten