Page:A history of booksellers, the old and the new.djvu/315

275 CHAMBERS, KNIGHT, AND CASSELL. 275 portant works are due to his pen, either as author, translator, or editor. The first of his labours, the " Bibliotheca Parriana," was published in 1827. Very soon after, starting on his own account, he acquired a high reputation as a dealer in rare and curious books, and for the spirit with which he entered into the " remainder trade ;" in this latter branch even Tegg was compelled to confess that Mr. Bohn eventually surpassed him. The merest reference to his monster " Guinea Catalogue " will give an idea of the magni- tude of his transactions at this period. Far, however, from being a mere trade guide, this catalogue is an invaluable literary work the most useful, as it cer- tainly is the largest, that has come from Mr. Bohn's pen. It is quaintly described by Allibone as " an enormously thick nondescripto ; Teutonic shape, best model ; ... an invaluable lexicon to any literary man, and ten guineas would be a cheap price for a work calculated to save time by its convenience for reference, and money by its stores of information as to the literary and pecuniary value of countless tomes." The Literary Gazette, in an appreciative and well-earned compliment, says : " Mr. Bohn has out- done all former doings in the same line, and given us a literary curiosity of remarkable character. The volume is the squattest and the fattest we ever saw. It is an alderman among books, not a very tall one ; and then, alderman-like, its inside is richly stuffed with a multitude of good things. Why, there is a list of more than 23,000 articles, and the pages reach to 1948 ! . . . This catalogue has cost him an outlay of more than 2000, and it describes 300,000 volumes, a stock which could hardly be realized at much less a < plum.' "