a worn impression of it, all these
things affect the price of a volume.

Then there are considerations outside the book itself. A scarce volume
included in a sale of unimportant books is unlikely to realise so high a
price as it might have done had it appeared in a Huth or Ashburnham sale;
for important books attract important bidders. The prices paid for poor
copies at the Frere sale in 1896 were enormous; the reason being,
probably, that this library had long been known to contain _desiderata_
for which public and private collections alike had hitherto thirsted in
vain; the sale was something of a _battue_, and the room was thronged
with buyers from all parts of the kingdom.

It is a ticklish question, this matter of the price which the collector
pays, and should pay, for his books, and one that may not be resolved
early in his career. In addition to exercising your memory when perusing
the catalogues which reach you, you will do well to obtain and study
'Prices of Books: an Enquiry into the Changes in the Price of Books
which have occurred in England at Different Periods,' an interesting
volume by that great connoisseur, Henry B. Wheatley. It was published in
octavo in 1898.

Most of the catalogues that one receives from the booksellers are of
little use when read, and no useful purpose is served by preserving them.
But there are certain dealers who specialise in a definite class of
books, and their catalogues are always of value, for they contain only
works upon a definite subject or of a definite class. Such catalogues
form most useful reference works, and even bibliographies of that
particular subject. By all means preserve them; you may have them plainly
bound in buckram (when you have collected a sufficient number of them) at
the cost of a shilling or two, or you may keep them in a small portfolio
on your shelf.

Sotheby's auction-sale catalogues are also valuable. They are nicely
produced, and have fine margins for making notes. It is well worth
obtaining these regularly, which one may do by paying a small
subscription. Most of them contain a miscellaneous assortment of books,
and are not worth keeping, but on the other hand most of the famous
libraries that are dispersed in this country pass through the Bond Street
house, and the catalogues of these are of the greatest value.

* * * * *

The history of booksellers' catalogues is an interesting one, and as yet
we have no au