[Jerome Kern sale at the Anderson Galleries, New York, priced auction catalogue.] The Library of Jerome Kern, New York City. Part One. A-J [Part Two. J-Z].

Part One: [4] + 247pp., 4to (including introduction by 'M. K. [i.e. Mitchell Kennerley]'). Part Two: [3] + 220pp., 4to (paginated 249-468). Perforated bidding sheet at end of Part Two. Internally in good condition, on lightly-aged paper, in worn and stained wraps with loss at spines. Attractively designed, with numerous illustrations and facsimiles in text. The cover of the first volume carries the ownership signature of John A. Holland at the head, and the prices of the sale's 1482 lots are given in Holland's hand. On the last page of each catalogue Holland gives the total for each of the sale's ten daily sessions, as well as those for the two parts (Part One, $933, 375; Part Two, $796,087.50), with the grand total of $1,729,462.50 given in the second part. The Kern sale marked the high-water mark of the early twentieth-century antiquarian book trade, with four dealers accounting for the lion's share of purchases: Rosenbach spent $410,000; Barnet Beyer $230,000; Gabriel Wells $185,000 and James Drake $125,000. Among many high points, the manuscript of Oliver Goldsmith's 'Vida's Scacchis, or Chess' sold for $27,000; a first edition in parts of 'Pickwick Papers', which Kern had bought for $3500, sold for $28,000; and a first edition of 'Tom Jones', also bought by Kern for $3500 (and subsequently found to have been 'sophisticated'), sold to Rosenbach for $29,000. The highest price was fetched for one of only two known copies of the first edition of Shelley's 'Queen Mab', bought by Kern in 1920 for $9,500, and sold to Gabriel Wells for $68,000. It was still in his stock on his death, and only fetched $8,000 when sold in 1951.