as
before; and the running is on something different. Books of Emblems,
Catholic Literature, Gardening and Agriculture, Occult Sciences, Early
Poetry, Old Plays, Americana, Bewick, Cruikshank, the modern
novelists, have all had their day. But the cry and the want are
largely artificial. The customers are few; the caterers are many. Such
a criticism applies only to the rarer and costlier _desiderata_.

The characteristics and frequent surprises of auction figures largely
proceed from the pressure brought to bear from without by bidders who
are in the background, who often possess slight bibliographical
knowledge, and whose resources enable them to furnish their
representatives with generous instructions. These competitors are
usually restricted to prominent sales, where the capital items are
numerous, and the name of the proprietor is that of a departed
celebrity, or at all events, where certain copies, whether of
manuscripts or printed books, are submitted to public competition
after a lengthened period of detention in the hands of the late
holder. The Ashburnham sale (now completed) afforded abundant proof of
the influence on the market of a collector who began to form his
library before many of us were born, and who succeeded not only in
securing many treasures at present almost beyond reach, but in doing
so at fairly moderate prices. But even when the late Lord Ashburnham
went to what was in his time considered an extreme figure, he or his
estate generally gained. For example, his _Parzival and Titurell_,
1477, which cost Mr. Quaritch L30, and was sold to his Lordship for
L45 or less (Lord Ashburnham did not object to a discount), was
reacquired by the former for L81, and the set of Walton's _Angler_,
which is understood to have cost L200, realised four times that
amount.

The auction mart, where literary property of all kinds changes hands,
possesses its slang vocabulary, and knows alike the _Frost_ and the
_Boom_--not to mention the _Fluke_. In the notices which occur in the
press the public sees only one side, only the high quotations. The
public are of course, as a rule, destitute of bibliographical
knowledge, and so is the normal journalist. He marches into the room
after some sale, asks for the priced catalogue, scans the pages, and
makes notes of the highest figures, which are as often as not
misprinted by him in the organ by which he is employed. He does not
say that a lot which was worth L20 went for L2,