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Auction: SW1014 - Bonds & Share Certificates of the World
Lot: 65

Mudie Select Library Limited. Share £20, 12. October 1864. #3236. In 1842, Charles Edward Mudie (1818-1890) began to lend books to students at the University of London, charging subscribers’ one guinea per year for the right to borrow one volume of a novel at a time. As most middle-class English people could not afford to purchase novels privately, there was a high demand for a lending library. For more than fifty years, Mudie’s “Select Library” had a strong influence over publishers and authors, for example in morality, subject and scope of the novel. In 1860, the company's New Oxford Street premises were substantially enlarged, and many new branches of the business were subsequently established in other English cities such as York, Manchester and Birmingham. In 1864 Mudie's was converted into a limited company. Mudie's library continued into the 1930s. Its decline eventually came as a result of the rising number of government-funded public libraries, which offered similar services at a much reduced rate. The original signature of Charles E. Mudie is rare. EF.

Estimate
SFr120 to SFr150