Note 81 — Chapter VIII

The portion of the Sudbury Hall Library sold at Sotheby's in June 1918 realised £20,201, 10s. There were 526 lots, an average of more than £38 a volume. The prices realised at the sale of that part of the Britwell Court Library dispersed at Sotheby's in December 1919, however, far exceeded any hitherto obtained. 108 lots brought £110,356—an average of nearly £1,022 a volume. But in this case every book was rarissimus. A small volume containing the only known copy of the fourth edition of Shakespeare's 'Venus and Adonis' (1599), the first edition of 'The Passionate Pilgrim' (1599—one other copy known), and 'Epigrammes and Elegies' by Davies and Marlow (circa 1598), realised £15,100—and departed forthwith to the United States.