Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 13, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 April 1892 — A Valuable Relic. [ARTICLE]

A Valuable Relic.

The second book printed in the English language was “The Game and Playe of the Chesse,” which the title page says was “Fynyshid the last day of Marche, the yer of our lord god a thousande foure hundred and LXXIIj.” Only twelve copies of the work are now known to exist. In 1813 an Englishman by the name of.Al- i chorne sold his copy for a sum equal to $270 of United States currency. Fifty-six years later, in 1869, the same volume (an imperfect copy) was sold for $2,150. The British Museum has refused an offer of SIO,OOO for its copy, which is imperfect to the extent of having seven leaves missing.