Hi All. I collect old books and I regularly sell duplicates or volumes which don’t fit in my collection. When it comes to valuations, I normally use viaLibri. For rarer books I look up old sales in auction houses on the-saleroom.com. However, I have this book which I can’t see for sale anywhere, and I can’t find any auction history for it either. So I have no idea whether the book is worth £1 or £1000! Can anyone help me with this one? The title is The Law and Practice of Parliamentary Elections. By Basil Montagu, Esq. Q.C. and W. Johnson Neale, Esq., Barristers at Law. Published in London in 1841. It’s two parts in one volume. The book is in the original publisher’s boards. The pages are very clean and many are unopened (especially in Part II). Mavota
Basil Montagu has a substantial wikipedia entry, so seems to be of some importance, which might affect value. But I cannot find any copies available or having sold - just a few included in law and government libraries. You might need to search for comparables - other law texts from the same period. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basil_Montagu
Interesting. I see that among other things he was one of the founding members of the RSPCA. Searching for books with a similar subject matter from the same period is tricky, because results are dominated by "Acts of Parliament" which are frequently separated from larger statute books and sold individually (usually 3 or 4 pages at a time).
OK, here are other works by Basil Montagu, published between 1801 and 1850, offered by online sellers. Note, these are asking prices, not prices realized. https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/Se...ortby=17&xdesc=off&xpod=off&yrh=1850&yrl=1801
I bet this has an audience out there - solicitors, barristers, parliamentarians, and employees/friends/family of same. The only question is what they'd pay.
Thanks again. I also found this one which has a vaguely similar subject matter: https://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/...ad59419&afn_sr=impact&ref_=aff_ir_59419_77797 Though there’s at least two copies of it for sale online, so it mustn’t be as uncommon. I think I will try to contact a couple of dealers / auction houses to see if I can get a valuation. The last time I had a properly rare book I stuck it on eBay for about £450 and it sold within a month to someone in Japan. I doubt if this one is like that, but here’s hoping!
Hi there ! You should contact auction houses that handle rare books; they could provide insights based on similar items they’ve sold. Additionally, comparing your book to other historical legal texts from the same period or works by Basil Montagu might help you understand its value . Good luck with your book!
