- About Bookbinding -

Yet the owner of this vast mass of mingled nonsense and erudition, this library
of the curiosities of literature, was as generous in imparting as in acquiring his
literary treasures. No English scholar but was freely welcome to the loan of his
volumes; and his own taste and critical knowledge are said to have been of the
first order.

From this, probably the most extensive private library ever gathered; let us turn
to the largest single purchase, in number of volumes, made at one time for a
public library. When Dr. J. G. Cogswell went abroad in 1848, to lay the
foundations of the Astor Library, he took with him credentials for the
expenditure of $100,000; and, what was of even greater importance, a
thoroughly digested catalogue of desiderata, embracing the most important
books in every department of literature and science. No such opportunity of
buying the finest books at the lowest prices is likely ever to occur again, as the
fortuitous concourse of events brought to Dr. Cogswell. It was the year of
revolutions-the year when the thrones were tottering or falling all over Europe,
when the wealthy and privileged classes were trembling for their possessions,
and anxious to turn them into ready money.

In every time of panic, political or financial, the prices of books, as well as of all
articles of luxury, are the first to fall. Many of the choicest collections came to the
hammer; multitudes were eager to sell but there were few buyers except the
book merchants, who were all ready to sell again. The result was that some
80,000 volumes were gathered for the Astor Library, embracing a very large
share of the best editions and the most expensive works, with many books
strictly denominated rare, and nearly all bound in superior style, at an average
cost of about $1.40 per volume. This extraordinary good fortune enabled the
Astor Library to be opened on a very small endowment, more splendidly
equipped for a library of reference than any new institution could be today with
four or five times the money.

Compared with such opportunities as these, you may consider the experiences
of the little libraries, and the narrow means of recruitment generally found, as
very literally the day of small things. But a wise apportionment of small funds,
combined with a good knowledge of the commercial value of books, and
perpetual vigilance in using opportunities, will go very far toward enlarging any
collection in the most desirable directions.

Compare for a moment with the results stated of the Astor Library's early
purchases, the average prices paid by British Libraries for books purchased from
1826 to 1854, as published in a parliamentary return. The average cost per
volume varied from 168 or about $4 a volume, for the University Library of
Edinburg, to 4s 6d, or $1.10 a volume for the Manchester Free Library. The
latter, however, were chiefly popular new books, published at low prices, while
the former included many costly old works, law books, etc. The British Museum
Library's average was 8s 5d or about $2.00 per volume. Those figures represent
cloth binding, while the Astor's purchases were mostly in permanent leather
bindings.

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