any idea what this is worth?

Great, thank you for your help.

"x" <zita..RemoveThis@speakeasy.net> wrote in message
news:fner70tdfk11q8vca208m18mhlo4l62k13@4ax.com...
 > Dear Querier,
 >
 > I have not looked up your book. On the face of it it does not sound
 > like one of the great rarities. My usual standard for such a book is
 > that as an odd volume it is not intrinsically valuable. It is worth
 > whatever you can get for it. Now on Ebay, right now there are several
 > collectors of song books in general. Some of them would bid on this,
 > but even assuming collector status for all of them it should not go
 > much beyond 50 US dollars. Even if there is only one other volume
 > needed, the possibility of getting it in the same binding is probably
 > nill, and of getting it at all, unless one was well connected to the
 > antiquarian market in the UK [and lived there] is slight. So the book
 > is a collector's item, but not resalable and therefore not something
 > to sink much money into.
 > Best,
 > Gabriel
 > Zita Books
 >
 >
 >
 > "Me, Myself and I" <brentwork.RemoveThis@hotmail.com> wrote:
 >
  > >Ancient and Modern Scottish Songs,Heroic Ballads:
  > >
  > >This book was first published in 1769 as one volume and it was expanded
to
  > >two volumes in 1776. This is volume 2 only of the 1776 edition. The
book
  > >is 283 pages in total and measures 7¼ x 4¼ inches. It was printed in
  > >Edinburgh by John Wortherspoon for James Dickson and Charles Elliot.
  > >
 ><!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: any idea what this is worth? 

I tried to answer this yesterday but I wasn't properly set up and it
doesn't seem to have gone through. Any odd volume, like this has no
assignable value. It will depend on who wants it where. There are
collectors for this category, and they are reachable at ebay. Any
price over 25 dollars US is gravy.

The only books with a real price in odd volumes are true rarities, or
the even rarer books which never got finished and of whuch there is
only the first volume.
Best,
Gabriel

"Me, Myself and I" <brentwork RemoveThis @hotmail.com> wrote:

 >Ancient and Modern Scottish Songs,Heroic Ballads:
 >
 >This book was first published in 1769 as one volume and it was expanded to
 >two volumes in 1776. This is volume 2 only of the 1776 edition. The book
 >is 283 pages in total and measures 7¼ x 4¼ inches. It was printed in
 >Edinburgh by John Wortherspoon for James Dickson and Charles Elliot.
 ><!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: any idea what this is worth? 

Gabriel wrote:

 > I tried to answer this yesterday but I wasn't properly set up and it
 > doesn't seem to have gone through. Any odd volume, like this has no
 > assignable value. It will depend on who wants it where. There are
 > collectors for this category, and they are reachable at ebay. Any
 > price over 25 dollars US is gravy.

Hi, Gabriel. Nice to see you posting here again. Your first reply did get
through, as did a couple of test messages you sent.

I probably wouldn't put my money where my mouth is here, since it's not
something that would fit in with my current collections, nor is it something
for which I could find a ready market, but I'd like to think this book was
worth a bit more than $25.

First, there's the matter of scarcity. This work was compiled by Deavid Herd
and originally published in 1769 as "The ancient and modern Scots songs,
heroic ballads, &c. now first collected into one body" (341 pages). COPAC
(http://www.copac.ac.uk/) lists holding libraries at Aberdeen, Glasgow,
Newcastle, the British Library and the National Library of Scotland.

The 1776 edition was published with the slightly different title of "Ancient
and modern Scottish Songs, heroic ballads etc". COPAC lists holding
libraries at Aberdeen (two copies), Glasgow, Edinburgh, Manchester (two
copies, one consisting of volume 1 only), Cambridge, Newcastle, the British
Library and the National Library of Scotland. Some have the two volumes in
one, others have a two-volume set.

I couldn't find any copies of either edition being offered by online
sellers, the earliest being the 1869 facsimile edition (several copies on
ABE <a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://dogbert.abebooks.com/abe/BookSearch" target="_blank">http://dogbert.abebooks.com/abe/BookSearch</a> at prices around $150-$300
for first printings in decent condition), reproduced from the 1776 edition.

I would hope that this copy of volume 2 only would at least be of interest
to Manchester, which - despite having the two volumes in one - has only
volume one of the two-volume set.

Then there is the matter of possible interest in - and demand for - this
work. I'm no expert in this field, but I had always believed what I had been
taught, that it was Robert Burns who saved Scotland's folkloric heritage
when he began working with James Johnson to compile the anthology "The Scots
Musical Museum", but work did not begin on this until 1784. I had no idea
that such a wealth of material had already been published in 1769, when
Burns was a mere ten years old. Fascinating!

One ABE seller (offering a copy of the 1869 facsimile edition) cites
Lowndes's description of the 1776 edition as "A collection of much merit".
Given the pride that Scottish people - and people of Scottish descent - have
in their heritage, I would have thought there are people out there who would
put quite a high value on preserving copies of it.

--
John
<a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://rarebooksinjapan.com" target="_blank">http://rarebooksinjapan.com</a><!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: any idea what this is worth?