“The Snob,” ten numbers and thirteen numbers, 1829-30, fetched at Sotheby’s (Parlane & Dasent) £89. The eleven numbers complete, with seventeen numbers of the “Gownsman,” sold at the Mansfield-Mackenzie sale, 1889, for £25.
“The Fox and the Cat,” final proof-sheets of a story apparently intended for the Cornhill Magazine, but never published, revised by the author, with numerous corrections and additions in his autograph, sold by Sotheby’s in March 1897 (Rare Books and MSS.) for £45, bought by Messrs. Smith, Elder, & Co.
The price of the first editions of Sir Walter Scott’s novels have been long in rising, but good fresh copies fetch a good price now.
The most remarkable price for a three-volume novel was obtained in July 1897 at Sotheby’s (Jack, Halliday, &c.), when the first edition of “Jane Eyre” sold for seventeen guineas.
The question naturally occurs, Will such prices as this continue? but it is a question very difficult to