rinciple to a sort of fine art, so much
has been written by a succession of gentlemen interested in these
specialities that we could hardly add much that was new, or treat this
aspect of the topic without repeating others or ourselves.

A point which merits a passing mention, however, is the history of the
bidding at these scenes of competition. It has been remarked as a
singular circumstance that in the seventeenth century penny biddings
were usual; but it was the silver penny of those days, and we have to
remember the higher purchasing value of money. Twopenny and threepenny
advances succeeded, and although these have long ceased in London,
they yet survive in the provinces, where the lots are less important.
Some of the principal houses now decline even sixpence, a shilling
being the _minimum_ offer entertained. The twopenny bidding still
prevailed in 1731, as a priced copy of the sale catalogue of Robert
Gray, M.D.,[9] shows. An offer of threepence is still not unknown in
the provinces, as we have intimated above in our notice of an episode
in Lincolnshire--not the Spalding one, but a second about the same
point of time.

One of the not least interesting and curious aspects of the auction
system is the diversity of motives inducing owners to part with their
property. A study of the title-pages or covers of catalogues admits us
ostensibly to the confidence of this or that collector. We should not
otherwise become aware that some fairly obscure gentleman or lady was
leaving his or her actual abode, that Balbus was changing the
character of his library, that his friend so-and-so, owing to a
failure of health, had found it necessary to settle in a more genial
climate, or that "a well-known amateur," of whom we never heard
before, was selling his duplicates. What does it signify? Literary
acquisitions, in common with everything else, are constantly passing
from one hand to another. Of course, if the last proprietor is
deceased, if it is an executor's affair, it is just as well to
mention the fact, as it places the operation on a clearer footing,
and there is little, if any, suspicion of nursing; but with ordinary
lots of books, where the party or parties interested may be living, it
seems preferable to describe the objects of competition purely and
simply as so many items for sale. The reason for the step is
immaterial, more especially as there is a proneness to receive the one
tendered, if not with indifference, with