Bernard Quaritch, London

Books that have passed through the hands of Quaritch can usually be recognised by ne or more of a number of markings.

"King Alfred" Price-codes

Bernard Quaritch senior's price-code was "kingalfred" (k=1, i=2, n=3, etc), so, for example, "ka/-" represents 15 shillings.

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Symbolic price-codes

Around the turn of the 20th century a new price-code was adopted, using a series of symbols such as an "X", a shape like a letter "L" rotated 90, 180, 270 and 360 degrees, a triangle and upside-down triangle, angle-brackets "]" and "[", and "0". Usually these symbols are found in the upper right corner of the back pastedown, and a stock/inventory number in normal arabic numerals are towards the bottom left corner.

The key to this code is explained by Exhumation [Ian Jackson], The Price-Codes of the Book-Trade: A Preliminary Guide (Berkeley, 2010), p.28.

In 'Fifty Years at Quaritch', in The Book Collector, Special Number for the 150th Anniversary of Bernard Quaritch, 1997, at p.37, E.M. Dring relates that "From then on [i.e. c.1925] until about 1960 I put the cost price in the back of every book bought by the firm at auction and gave it to the appropriate department for cataloguing".

Examples of Quaritch catalogue entries may be found here