Second-hand and old books

Abstract

The world of old books ranged from the waste paper of the dung heap to the wariness and snobberies of private collectors. This chapter concerns with new books, their manufacture, sale, reception and use. The market in new books was affected by those that were available second-hand. The increase in numbers of books in the latter part of the nineteenth century, and the increase in sales from long-established private libraries, fuelled the book trade. Besides bookshops, there were innumerable less formal ways of selling books, and particularly on stalls of all sizes, from semi-permanent structures to street barrows. In 1830, the major London dealers in old books and manuscripts were headed by Thomas Thorpe in Bedford Street, Thomas Rodd in Great Newport Street at the foot of Long Acre, and the Quaker brothers John and Arthur Arch in the City. The major auction houses were concentrated in London, and the major second-hand and antiquarian booksellers were mostly there as well.