AMERICAN

BOOK-PRICES CURRENT.

VOL. VII.

Of this volume of AMERICAN BOOK-PRICES CURRENT

only six hundred and twenty-five copies, of which
twenty-five are on Large Paper, have been printed
from type at the University Press, and the type has
been distributed.

Large Paper, No. 9.

Dodd, Mead & Co.

BOOK-PRICES CURRENT.

A

122558

record of BOOKS, MANUSCRIPTS, AND AUTOGRAPHS

SOLD AT AUCTION IN NEW YORK, BOSTON, AND

PHILADELPHIA, FROM september 1, 1900,

TO SEPTEMBER 1, 1901, WITH THE

PRICES REALIZED.

COMPILED FROM THE AUCTIONEERS' CATALÓGUES

BY

LUTHER S. LIVINGSTON.

NEW YORK:
DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY.

PREFACE.

THE

HE auction season of 1900 and 1901, the sales of which are recorded in this volume of American Book-Prices Current, without question exceeds in importance any previous season, both in number of sales and value of books dispersed. We record 10,042 lots of books and autographs, which is a considerable increase over any previous season since our compilation was begun.

While our record aims to show all important books and manuscripts selling for over three dollars for the lot, a good many items, necessarily, are thrown out, to keep the volume within reasonable size. Current books which can still be had of the publishers are generally excluded, and in cases where "remainders" are being worked off by throwing copies into numerous sales, a selection only is shown. In other cases, also, where more than three or four copies of the same book have been sold, a representative selection only is generally introduced. Some other items selling at about our limit, more especially books in foreign languages, as well as occasional cases where the catalogue description was too meagre to identify the book, have been excluded.

Taking it for granted that this condensation is uniform through the seven volumes of our work, it is interesting to see the growth of this particular department of the book business in America. Our initial volume for 1895 recorded only 6025 lots; 1896 reached 7411; 1897, 8562; 1898, 7547; 1899, 8859; 1900, 9662; and 1901, 10,042. The growth has been constant with the exception of the single setback in 1898.

This year we have made selections from 190 catalogues, comprising some 347 sales on 303 days. These 190 catalogues included only a little over 114,000 lots, while the preceding season including only some 164 catalogues comprising 340 sessions made up only about 113,000 lots. The great increase of items recorded is ac