A very different story has to be told with reference to the books and pamphlets produced by the early English printers. Until the latter part of the last century, these items were the despised of the scholarly and aristocratic collector. A few antiquaries found them not without interest, but they had only a nominal commercial value. At the sale of Dr. Francis Bernard, at his 'late dwelling house in Little Britain,' in October, 1698, thirteen Caxtons were sold, as follows:
£ s. d. 'The Boke called Cathon,' 1483 0 3 0 'Chastising of Goddes Chyldern' 0 1 10 'Doctrinal of Sapience,' 1489 } 'Chastising of Goddes Chyldern' } 0 5 0 'Chronicle of England,' _very old_ 0 4 0 'Dictes and Sayings of the Philosophers,' 1477 0 5 4 'Game and Playe of the Chesse,' 1474 0 1 6 'Godefroy of Boloyne,' 1481 0 4 0 'Historyes of Troy,' 1500 0 3 0 'Jason and the Golden Fleece' 0 3 6 'Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye,' 1502 0 3 0 Another copy 0 3 0 'Tullius of Olde Age' 0 4 2 ---------- £2 1 4
Eighty years later, when the library of John Ratcliffe[132:A] was sold at Christie's (March 27, 1776), a collection of upwards of thirty Caxtons came under the hammer, and of these we will only quote seven examples:
£ s. d. 'Chronicles of Englande,' fine copy, 1480 5 5 0 'Doctrinal of Sapience,' 1489 8 8 0 'The Boke called Cathon,' 1483 5 5 0 'The Polytique Book, named Tullius de Senectute,' 1481 14 0 0 'The Game and Playe of Chesse' 16 0 0 'The Boke of Jason' 5 10 0 'Legenda Aurea,'[133:A] 1483 9 15 0
At the Watson Taylor and Perry sales in 1823, four examples, nearly all fine copies, of Caxton's books realized a total of £239 5s., as follows:
£ s. d. 'The Life of Jason,' 1476-77 95 11 0 'The Boke called Cathon,' 1483 30 19 6 'Troylus and Creside,' 1484 66 0 0 Virgil's 'Eneidos,' 1490, very fine and perfect 46 14 6
[Illustration: _The Fifty-seven Althorp Caxtons._]