answer. All that can be said is, that in this class of books there is the most uncertainty as to the high prices being sustained.
Depreciation is a factor which must be taken into consideration, but it is not at present very widespread. It is quite easy to understand why editions of the classics and Thomas Hearne’s editions of “Chronicles,” &c., have gone down in price, because the publication of superior texts has partially superseded them; but one can scarcely explain why the set of “Byzantine Historians” should fall so much in price, for these ponderous volumes have not been superseded. At the Hamilton sale in 1884 a fine large paper set of these “Historians,” 1645-1777, eighteen volumes in red morocco by Ruelle, and five in calf, only brought £4, 10s.
Mezeray’s Histoire de France, 3 vols. folio, bound in blue morocco by Derome, which sold formerly for £105, only sold for £33 at the Beckford sale.