The Book-Hunter at Home

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The Book-Hunter at Home, by P. B. M. Allan

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Title: The Book-Hunter at Home
Author: P. B. M. Allan
Release Date: September 22, 2007 [EBook #22716]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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THE BOOK-HUNTER AT HOME.
Of this edition 500 copies have been printed, and 50 upon fine paper.
[Illustration: THE BOOK-HUNTER AT HOME (JAN SIX, BY REMBRANDT)]
THE BOOK-HUNTER AT HOME
BY P. B. M. ALLAN
THE SECOND EDITION, REVISED
[Illustration]
LONDON PHILIP ALLAN & CO. QUALITY COURT, CHANCERY LANE
First Edition--1920
Second Edition--1922
PRINTED BY WHITEHEAD BROTHERS, WOLVERHAMPTON.

THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY
TO THE HONOURABLE AND VERTUOUS LADY MISTRESS E. K. A.
MADAM,
It would be churlish indeed were I to send this book into the world without some acknowledgment of the share which you have had in its making. Indeed, I feel that you are chiefly responsible for it: without your encouragement, your active help, your patience with me at all times (at which I marvel constantly), it would never have arrived at completion. Truly it is your name, not mine, that should appear upon the title-page; for although mine may have been the hand that penned the words, certain it is that yours was the mind that guided my pen throughout. It is to your sympathy, your judgment, your excellent taste, that I am indebted for every good thing that I have penned; and where I have put down aught that is trite or insipid, it is due to my own natural obstinacy in refusing, or carelessness in neglecting, to defer the matter to your better judgment. Thus it is only right that whatever praise may be bestowed upon this book should be accorded to you; my shoulders alone must bear the censure of the discerning reader.
I am, Madam, your very dutiful, and loving husband, THE AUTHOR.

PREFACE
In placing this second edition before his fellow book-lovers, the author would like to take the opportunity of thanking the numerous correspondents who have written to him from all parts of the world. In truth book-collecting establishes a bond between its devotees that is effected by no other pursuit.
The first edition was put forth only after much hesitation, and with a good deal of fear and trembling: that a second edition would ever be required was unthinkable. But since the book has so obviously been the means of bringing pleasure to so many, the author feels that it is his duty to bring this second edition 'up to date,' to make it as perfect as his poor skill allows. Accordingly the volume has been revised throughout, a number of additions have been made, both to the text and in the matter of footnotes, and the prices of books have been amended according to present conditions. Three illustrations have been added. QUALITY COURT, July, 1921.

CONTENTS
CHAP PAGE I. ADVENTURES AMONG BOOKS 1 II. THE LIBRARY 31 III. BOOKS WHICH FORM THE LIBRARY 58 IV. CHIVALRY AND ROMANCE 84 V. THE CARE OF BOOKS 106 VI. THE CARE OF BOOKS (Continued) 126 VII. BOOKS OF THE COLLECTOR 160 VIII. A PLEA FOR SPECIALISM 194 IX. A PLEA FOR SPECIALISM (Continued) 230 INDEX 267
ILLUSTRATIONS
THE BOOK-HUNTER AT HOME frontispiece THE PERON page 96 THE HALL OF THE KNIGHTS " 104 THE HOME-MADE LIBRARY " 128
[Illustration]
CHAPTER I
ADVENTURES AMONG BOOKS
'Thou shalt make castels thanne in Spayne.'
CHAUCER.
IT is a sad truth that bargains are met with more frequently in our youth than in our age. The sophist may argue that age begets philosophy, and that philosophy contemns all worldly things; yet certain it is that the book-hunter, one of the most philosophical of beings, remains on the look-out for bargains to the very end of his career. Nevertheless, it is a fact that in youth alone do we make those great bargains which lay the foundations of our careers as book-hunters.
It is this sad truth which fosters in most of us the belief that we live in a decadent age, and that the days of our youth were infinitely more seemly than those which we now endure. But it is we who have changed: the bargains are still there, and may still be had at the cost of youthful energy and enthusiasm.
'Ah, but you can't get the bargains nowadays that you could when I was a young man,' says the elderly bookseller, with a knowing shake of his head. Can't you! Then mankind must have changed strangely since the period of this sage's youth. Bargains, and rich ones too, in everything