Anderson, Jr.

While the auctioneer is admitted to be an important factor in the
handling of a book once it has become a finished product, his
relations to it are not clearly understood, even by many of those who
avail themselves of his services as a medium of sale or purchase. An
endeavor shall therefore be made to present here, in the simplest
possible way, some facts which may prove both pertinent and
enlightening.

It is to be presumed that the auctioneering of books began at the time
when it first became apparent to the owners of libraries that a
necessity existed for the establishment of a system by which they
could reach the largest number of buyers, and bring about the quickest
sales and returns, for these are, admittedly, the distinguishing
features of the auction method, as opposed to all others.[4] Selling
to the highest bidder proved the happy solution of the problem, and to
this day it has been universally recognized as the most satisfactory
method of dispersion. To quote a book as having sold for so much at
auction gives it in the minds of all true bookmen the best possible
criterion of value. The prices obtained, though variable, represent a
consensus of opinion, and may be considered as standards.

[Footnote 4: "But it was soon perceived, that when
necessity or inclination determined the disposal of
libraries, the auction method was on the whole by
far the best, producing as it did, and still does,
competition amongst a larger circle of intending
purchasers, with a better result than would have
been obtained by selling _en bloc_."--JOHN LAWLER,
in "Book Auctions in England in the Seventeenth
Century."]

So far as can be traced, the earliest known book auctions took place
in Holland. The library of Marnix of St. Aldegonde was sold by
Christopher Poret at Leyden, July 6, 1599, this being the earliest
recorded sale. The first English book sale is supposed to have been
that held on October 31, 1676, when the library of the then lately
deceased Rev. Lazarus Seaman was sold at his residence in Warwick
Court, Warwick Lane, London, by William Cooper. The earliest known
sale in America occurred at the Crown Coffee House in Boston, on July
2, 1717, and succeeding days, when was dispersed the library of the
famous early New England divine,