The Washington herald., 1922-03-19
EDITOR TELLS HOW.
BOOKS GAIN VALUE
A. B. Maurice Recalls Tones
Commanding Sums Up
To $4,000.

palO S4S,OUU Tor the only known per-
feet copv OF The Morte d'Arthur," !"
printed by Caxton.
Answering the question. What
makes these books. desirable and
valuable? Arthur b. Maurice, former
editor of The Bookman. says in the
March Mentor Magazine that rarity
Is the first requisite. No matter
how old or how odd a book may be
1t has little value IL there are many
copies of it in existence. Books
otherwise acquire value through
their oddity, their beauty, or even
because of a curious blunder in
their contents. Any one of these
things, combined with rarity. may
make a prize book in the market.
Queer Bibles Valuable.
Bccentricity. especially in the
case OF Bibles, has made books val
liable. There are the Thumb Bible,
the Murderer's Bible, the Wife
Halter Bible. the Discharged Bible.
the Vinegar Bible, the Camel Bible,
the Breeches Bible. the Leda Bible.
the Wicked Bible. and the Bug
Bible. In the Breeches Bible,
which in fine condition is ex-
NdludOlGs II dppCdIE NHdA
Adam and Eve made themselves
breeches"; the Vinegar Bible used
the words parable of the vinegar
instead of vineyard" the Wicked
Bible omitted the negative from the
Seventh Commandment. A Belfast
Bible published in 1916 has "sin on
more" for 'sin no more"
The Palace of the Escorial in
II - ierh nd
four broad. The Thumb Bible con-
tsins copper plates. yet Is no larger
than a postage stamp. But one
copy of Babage's Specimens of
Logarithms" was printed in London
in 1881. yet il was in twenty-one
volumes. there were 151 variously
colored papers chosen the following
colored inks were used: Black, pur-
pie, dark red, light red, olive, yellow,
dark green, light green, dark blue
and light blue, and Volume MI
contained metallic printing in gold,
silver and copper bronzes, upon
vellum and variously colored paper.
There have been oddities of bind
ing: the aristocracy OF France
laughed at Jean Jacques Rousseau's
THE Social Contract" and their
skins went to bind the second edi-
tion. The French revolution
established a tannery to make use
of human skin when the guillotine
was taking its daily toll. At Marl-
borough House. London, there are
two books bound in the skin OF
Mary Patman, a Yorkshire witch.
A devoted woman admirer of Ca
mile Flammarion, the French
astronomer, bequeathed her skin to
be used in binding an edition of
his works.
Surprising Increases.
Seventy years ago an English
magazine pointed out the folly 80
a book auction that brought the
astonishing sum of 1900. The
books, the writer protested, were
not worth 500 farthings. The other
day a book collector checked up the
price these same books would bring
today. and it totaled more than
100000.
The choice OF the most famous
books in the world is a matter OF
individual taste. OF course, every
list would have the Gutenberg
Bible at the top, or very near 1t.
other books likely to be conspicu-
Gus in selected lists are "Helyas,
knight of the Swami" printed by
wynken de Worde in 1912. foT
which Walter NJ. Hill. of Chicago,
paid s21.o00; the Caxton .'Morte
d'Arthur"; the Pembroke Book of
Hours; the first Gray's "Elegy";
william Blakes Milton; the first
French edition of Bocaccio, printed
at Bruges in 1916; Bu-ton's ANA
tony of Melancholy" and The
Book of st. Adams" Rare and val
liable books of American origin are
Poe's "Tamerlane"; Bryants "The
Embargo" written when the poet
was IL years old; the Bay Psalm
Book, first book printed in America;
Hawthorne's "Fanshawe," and the
first New York City Directory, pub
lished in 1886.
TT looks like a best-seller to me
Sincerely, Mencken." is the reac-
tion of one OF our most rambunc-
tiously outspoken and least strok-
able Gas we'll as most discriminat-
ing) critics to Harry Hervey's Car
avans by Night" the Century COM
pany reports.