, enclosed in case.'

The country bookseller's copy, on the other hand, is described as
follows:

'Folio, russia (joints broken), has the 270 ll. of text complete,
but wants the 10 ll. unnumbered, of preliminary matter.'

In other words, one copy is a very choice specimen of the book, tall,
clean, and perfect; while the other is an undesirable copy of ordinary
size, imperfect, and in poor condition.

There is another point also. The London dealer specialises in such books,
in fact deals only in ancient and scarce works, and has a definite
_clientele_ of rich and well-known collectors. He can 'place' certain
rare books at once, for he knows the _desiderata_ of each of his
customers and the deficiencies of their collections. The countryman, on
the other hand, deals in all manner of books, ancient and modern, has few
rich purchasers among his customers, and knows nothing whatever of their
book-buying propensities. Any volume that he offers for sale may remain
on his hands for an indefinite time.

Then there are such volumes as 'association books,' by which is meant
books possessing an additional interest by reason of their former
association with some notability, such association being evident by
autographs, corrections, annotations, additions, or binding. Such volumes
often exceed enormously the price of ordinary copies. The first
Edinburgh edition (1787) of Burns' Poems is worth usually about L5; but
a copy realised L75 at auction a few years ago. The reason for this
extraordinary price was that in this volume all those lines in which
asterisks occur were filled in with the full names in the handwriting of
the poet. Moreover it contained an additional stanza on 'Tam Samson' in
Burns' autograph. For such a jewel one cannot consider the figure
excessive, and it will doubtless run well into three figures if it ever
appear in the sale-room again. Similarly, each year witnesses the sale of
certain of these 'association' volumes; and unless you are aware of the
reasons causing these high prices to rule, such records will be worse
than useless to you. A superficial study of all auction-sale prices is
apt to be intensely misleading. Unless you are actually on the spot or
have handled the volume in question, the price that it realises will tell
you little as to the stable value of the work. A torn page, a shaved
headline, the underlining of a line or two with ink, a 'mounted'
frontispiece, a missing plate, or even