Strawberry Hill 3

The second visit to the waiting room library at Raynes Park, mentioned in the post before last, yielded four year's worth of posh book auction records, 1993-1996, in three very substantial and handsomely bound volumes, as new from Dawson's. Heavy enough to warrant the help of a taxi from Epsom Station.

Each volume running to around 500 three column pages, recording all the posh books sold in all the posh auction houses for the year in question. I suppose that such works are no longer printed, it being more sensible to put them out over the internet. So a real historical treasure - although I wonder how long we will give them shelf space for.

Not for the first time, struck by the vagaries of the second hand book market. There were books from the 15th century going for a few hundred pounds. Inscribed editions of Fleming's 'Moonraker' going for a few thousand pounds. Fine editions of Proust going for a few hundred thousand francs.

With Joyce, with part of the entry for 'Ulysses' being illustrated left, being in the middle ground. The usually reliable scanner from HP did not do very well, with the usually reliable telephone from MS not doing much better, but I settled for this last.