copy of
the Coverdale Bible; several works from the press of Caxton, and the
first four editions of Shakespeare's Plays. It also comprised many fine
manuscripts, some of them superbly illuminated. Mr. Henry Perkins
bequeathed his books to his son, Mr. Algernon Perkins, and after his
death in 1870 they were sold by auction at Hanworth by Gadsden, Ellis
and Co. on the 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th of June 1873. There were but eight
hundred and sixty-five lots in the sale, but they realised an average of
thirty pounds, or a total of twenty-five thousand nine hundred and
fifty-four pounds, four shillings, the largest sum ever obtained for a
library of the same extent. The vellum copy of the Gutenberg Bible was
purchased for the Earl of Ashburnham for three thousand four hundred
pounds; and the paper copy, now in the Huth library, fetched two
thousand six hundred and ninety. Fust and Schoeffer's Latin Bible of
1462, which Mr. Perkins acquired at the sale of Mr. Dent's books for one
hundred and seventy-three pounds, five shillings, sold for seven hundred
and eighty pounds; while the copy of Coverdale's Bible, which wanted the
title and two following leaves and the map, realised four hundred
pounds; and the 1623 edition of Shakespeare's Plays brought five hundred
and eighty-five pounds. The manuscripts also went for large sums. John
Lydgate's _Sege of Troye_, a magnificently illuminated manuscript on
vellum of the fifteenth century; _Les OEuvres Diverses_ of Jehan de
Meun; and _Les Cent Histoires de Troye_ of Christine de Pisan, of about
the same period, sold respectively for thirteen hundred and twenty, six
hundred and ninety, and six hundred and fifty pounds. The prices
obtained for the books were generally greatly in excess of those given
by Mr. Perkins for them.

FREDERICK PERKINS, 1780-1860

Frederick Perkins of Chepstead, Kent, born in 1780, was a brother of
Henry Perkins, and a partner in the same firm. He also formed a good
library, which contained the first four Shakespeare folios, and a
considerable number of the separate plays in quarto. Among them were the
first editions of _Love's Labour Lost_, _Much Ado about Nothing_, the
Second Part of _Henry the Fourth_, _Troilus and Cressida_, _Pericles_,
_Othello_, and the second or first complete edition of _Romeo and
Juliet_, as well as the first edition of _Lucrece_. Three Caxtons were
to be found in the collection: the _Mirrour of the World_, the
_Chastising of Goddes