Anatomy of an Auction : Rare Books at Ruxley Lodge, 1919

Book Collector, London, first edition, 1990. Cloth, 8vo,. viii, 169 pp. From the prospectus :"The dispersal of the Foley family library in October 1919 was notable for the richness of the books sold - and for the general inadequacy of the prices they fetched. Nearly every considerable lot went to a covert combination of booksellers, some eighty strong, and the total sum obtained under the hammer was demonstrably less than a sixth of the wholesale value of the library. The discrepancy points up the effectiveness of a ring whose members ranged from the grandees of the London rare book trade to the humblest of country second-hand dealers. Drawing on records kept by principal participants in the sale and in the four subsequent 'knock-outs', the Freemans reveal the intricacies of a practice whose workings have not previously been subject to such detailed and informed scrutiny. The motives and ethics of ringing - legal in England before 1928 - are discussed and the effects of combination on the conduct of the bookselling trade are examined. Public reaction against such auction results, in the press and in Parliament, led directly to the 1927 Act outlawing the ring, and the outcry and legislation are closely discussed. The sale of the Foley library is set against the 250-year history of the collection, and the subsequent fate of many of its books, traced from a wide variety of sources, provides fresh insight into the history of the book trade between the wars, its practitioners and their spoils. Wearing its learning lightly, Anatomy of an Auction throws light on one of the murkier aspects of bibliopolic practice. But the wider aspects of the subject receive thorough scholarly attention: this study, a model of its kind, offers a revaluation not only of the antiquarian book trade, but of the books themselves and of the circles in which they were first brought together only to be so unceremoniously dispersed. Inscribed and signed by the authors on a flyleaf, Very Good in a slightly used dustwrapper, the spine-panel of which is a little faded.