The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-11-18
PsinceIy Prices Paid for Some Very Insignificant
 Articles.

rs ana faneies the taste of iGolden rr9Fy, rsevlon tea he will have to pay a5fka d mound for it. If his desire rttna to whaIebone he will find L ogfatsd to him at the mere trifle or S1k.000 a ton. If he proposes 70 puy nlA United states stamps--the 5-cent se~rknnan, for instance. or the 1-cent vermillion Philadelphia carrier, ne win find the prices set at s2z5 ana g99.Ee, respectively. If it be the WnisI- ne wishes to hang in his gallery 10! there stands J. P. Morgan to pid against him with bagatelie ouer ol s2s.eo0 for the canvas.
 These are not fairy tale figures. They are actualities realized within the past eight weeks. Moreover, such prices for paintings and postage stamps are far from record level, even though tea and whalebone do not or ters nlav such roles in the market. sales like these. however, bring up once more that ever new subject or fha financial romances of the world auction rooms Almost weekly come contributions to they< strange story with the high-water marks pushed up and up with every month till men won der less st the prices paid than that NWN&E& C1uA0 DE AVufA0 tS As%S h
 7HAcord" prices are entertaining xhtnEs, no matter how one looks at fhan. For instance, as ane reads or S2n.eo0 being paid last spring for Sewras vase, less than seventeen inches high, one sees behind that six-minute contest such a triumph for Madame de Pornpadour as must have done no ht- tie good to the presumably restless shade of so beautiful. but erring, Az ehM al v own brilliant generation for spersuad- ing Louis the Wefl-Beloved to lavish millions of livers on the Sevres factor 1ea. but at such figures for the ware the French monarch could have made no better investment than buying in ali that was made to sell it today to IOng-pursed collectors. Silver at $2,- S60 an ounce, again. should cover at least the cost of production--or land at s4 a square inch should repay one for advertising it, These high levels were touched last June, the one at the fa- nous Christie salesrooms in London ffor a 1910 wine flagon,) and the oth- CT in New York when a diminutive lot at the corner of Broadway and Wall street changed hands for $750,000.
 Here are a half dozen recent Tree srdss in dollars and cents:
 "$g1, 1000 for a seat on the New York Stock Exchange, December 20.
 4S1, ,375 for a rock crystal vase, six teenth century, May 26.
 &2s.590 for the Agra" diamond, weight s1 carats, February 22.
 &s0s000 for an Elizabethan ewer, sil- yer mounted. February 24.
 $1A,000 for a poephry statuettes inounted in ormolu, April 2s.
 ss.o0o for a snun box, decorated by Tenters, August 15.
 when a lock of hair brings SIS or an old anvil $i.300, as last December's news had to tell, one only asks: s'vThose were they?' It was Thacke- rays hair and 1t brought more than tho novelist made out of his first book. It was John Bunyan's anvil--and old iron keven 2S0 years old) never before commanded such figure.
 Hair from the right mans head us- ueIly brings a fancy price; curly or straight. red or black, nothing counts In the hair market but the owner of the scalp that grew it. Lord Nelson holds this record. When twenty-four of his hairs brought Se25 newspaper readers took notice, but November last brought a comparatively better sale than this, when nine (by actual count) Of the admiraPs "head-grown spears" commanded $S6O. Wellington locks como cheaper; one may get q first rate little bunch for $7.50. Byron, who had hair that was especially beautiful. stands fairly steady in the market at $95 per k-Napoleon, who wore some of his right in the middle of his forehead, ranges all the way from s5 up to $100.
 All the world can spend money on books. but at least one man knows, too, how to make money out of them Tn April e. D. Smith, the New York literary dealer, paid $6.6s4 for Ire- lands famous "History of the Stage" and his bool1ish confreres said he mad paid too much by at least the $664. But Mr. Smith had to hold the thirty volumes only twenty-four days till he had found a purchaser at exactly $1,- 900 clear profit. The other annalist of the drama, Doran, If he visits the auction rooms unseen, must have been gratified at hearing his thirteen vOl- tunes go Gin the Cope sale, Philadel- phial for s6.O00
 July last witnessed two monumental transactions of this sort, with Lon don the scene each time. A clean copy of the fourth auarto of shakespeare's Richard IIr'-one Of the three copies known to be extant-brought $S,750, while a Caxton volume, dating back 10 the days when that pioneer printer ran his small shop in the very Abbey og Westminster, fetched" (the Eng lishman would say) only S2.O00 less.
 Trotters and pacers do better even shan this. November saw Cresceus change hands for $51,00O, and The Ab- bolt for S26.50O; Dan Patch had brought $so,000, and Major Delmar S40.- 900. Grahamtown, South Africa, wit messed a $5,000 trade where a pair Of ostriches were held equivalent to that very good money.
 The oldest things of all the auctio- neer puts up seem to get the highest prices. An egg of old sinbad's roc