in
engravings, etchings, wood-cuts, etc., that illustrate books, than upon
his works on canvas or in marble. Many finely illustrated works bear
prices enhanced by the eagerness of collectors, who are bent upon
possessing the designs of some favorite artist, while some amateurs covet
a collection of far wider scope. This demand, although fitful, and
sometimes evanescent, (though more frequently recurrent,) lessens the
supply of illustrated books, and with the constant drafts of new
libraries, raises prices. Turner's exquisite pictures in Rogers's Italy
and Poems (1830-34) have floated into fame books of verse which find very
few readers. Hablot K. Browne ("Phiz") designed those immortal Wellers in
Pickwick, which have delighted two whole generations of readers. The
"Cruikshankiana" are sought with avidity, in whatever numerous volumes
they adorn. Books illustrated with the designs of Bartolozzi, Marillier,
Eisen, Gravelot, Moreau, Johannot, Grandville, Rowlandson, Bewick,
William Blake, Stothard, Stanfield, Harvey, Martin, Cattermole, Birket
Foster, Mulready, Tenniel, Maclise, Gilbert, Dalziel, Leighton, Holman
Hunt, Doyle, Leech, Millais, Rossetti, Linton, Du Maurier, Sambourne,
Caldecott, Walter Crane, Kate Greenaway, Haden, Hamerton, Whistler, Dore,
Anderson, Darley, Matt Morgan, Thos. Nast, Vedder, and others, are in
constant demand, especially for the early impressions of books in which
their designs appear.

(14) Finally, that extensive class of books known as early _Americana_
have been steadily growing rarer, and rising in commercial value, since
about the middle of the nineteenth century. Books and pamphlets relating
to any part of the American continent or islands, the first voyages,
discoveries, narratives or histories of those regions, which were hardly
noted or cared for a century ago, are now eagerly sought by collectors
for libraries both public and private. In this field, the keen
competition of American Historical Societies, and of several great
libraries, besides the ever increasing number of private collectors with
large means, has notably enhanced the prices of all desirable and rare
books. Nor do the many reprints which have appeared much affect the
market value of the originals, or first editions.

This rise in prices, while far from uniform, and furnishing many examples
of isolated extravagance, has been marked. Witness some examples. The
"Bay Psalm Book," Cambridge, Mass., A. D. 1640, is the Caxt