Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-10-11

from the dusty shelves into the cold hard light
Of the open market where collectors, with a.
standard Of values all their own narrowly
appraise them.
Suppose you found, tucked away IN some
dark corner q copy OF the Bug" Bible, printed
in 1549, or, Stifl better, Barker'S black-letter
Bible Of 1858, containing the error of Judas"
for Jesus" in Matthew XVI? What a fndi
Must be worth fortune. You send 1t to the
auction room and wait breathleSsly dreaming
meantime Of all you are going to buy and do
when that treasure Is exchanged after SEN
sational fight between excited collectors and
dealers, for far more than its weight in gold.
And what comes back to you? For the
bug" Bible trife of SIS, for the Barker Bible
$265 Cthe error has increased its normal
WORTH. These were the prices realized on the
last occasion that the aforesaid items were
offered.
Old, quaint curious-but the collectors don't
want them. There are too many about. For
centuries after printing started in 1450, Bibles
and books OF common prayer were about the
only books that were printed in abundance.
So many Brooches Bibles have survived that
nobody wants one now.
Thousands Of people who either are not In
terested IN or cannot afford the big game, go
in for the first editions of the last century.
One can understand the attraction on seeing
a portion Of the collection Of first editions from
the library Of Edmund Goose, the great British
critic Of the Victorian and Edwardian eraS,
sell at auction for $50 900, which would be two
or three hundred times their original cost.
There is no end to the vagares and the luck
of &his first-edition game A. A. Milne is a
modern. He published limited signed edition
Of when We Were Very Young" priced at
less than $40. The price of copies has been
steadily advancing until today the collector
would have to pay around $500 for one. One
year you could buy first edition of II. M.
Tonlnson's first book. sea and the Jungle
for IS; the next year the price had jumped to
$751; at auction. The original price in 1912
was $3.50.
Dean Swift;s "Gullivers Travels" published
at very modest price, is worth perhaps $4,000
now. But it has been only 40 years since Kip
lng's Letters Of Marque" was published at
about half dollar; the last time one came on
the market it fetched $1,000. Fifteen thou
sand copies Of Letters of Marque" were print
ed, but all except two three were destroyed.
Hence the big price.
THE skill in the gare is to spot the winners
! and get their first editions while they are
still unwanted and therefore cheap. The $50
edition of Galsworthy's Man of Property" now
fetches around $40. and Norman Douglas
South Wind" only about IA years old, around
SIS. But these figures pale beside the $1,000
paid for 1913 copy of Chance" inscribed on
the 1yleaf Caroline and Arthur Marwood-
afectionately, from j. Conrad. 1919"
Bernard Shaw always ridicule when
anything of his fetches fantastic price In the
auction room, loudly urging al wise persons
advantage of prices while the market is high.
Postcards and typewriter letters bearing mere
~ the famous &c. B. s.. initials have been
sold at auction for high SIS apiece, and
5000 has been paid for a little unpublished
poem he wrote for the English actress, Ellen
Terry.
The boom in Shaw has been sudden. A few
years ago Gilbert Faber, of the London
experts went to Shaw and asked what he
wanted for q selection of his manuscripts and
editions. Shaw
their price, but Faber insisted. "An right, III
take $4,000 for the lot" said Shaw.
That is an excellent start for Dutch
auction" retorted Faber "I will now offer
you 500 for them" The bargain eventually
closed at $50. The big boom in modern first
editions and manuscripts started soon after,
and inside three years the worth of that lot
had scared from $150-to nearly $4,000.
Galsworthy and Kpling probably the
two steadiest big markets among living writ
ers. Not long ago three first-edition copies Of
the formers books brought nearly 81, 600. That
is an astonishing price when you recollect that
he has been writing for only 80 years, and that
there must be over 900 of each of those first
editions about in the world. People seem to
hang on to their Galsworthys.
But GalSworthy, by his Suppressions and in-
scriptions, by interference with the makeup
of his books, by reluctance to inscribe and give
away first editions OF early books, or by tardi-
ness in acquiring recognition has given the
collectors tough chases and made them pay
through the nose. He offers striking case In
point with the 1923 edition of his collected
short stories, published under the title "Caps
lures" The publishers issued this with a list
of books by other authors the reverse OF
the first end paper. Galsworthy objecting the
page was torn out of the first issue and this
particular edition, which is very rare, is valued
at 81 600 copy. Then there was the Silver
Spoon" incident in 1926. Galsworthy objected
to the dust cover book jacket with the title In
silver and green on the front, along with q
silver spoon. It was withdrawn, but not before
a few had got out A first edition in this first
suppressed wrapper is worth around $3.50.