Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 5.djvu/437

 9<s. V.JUNE 2, 1900.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

429

LONDON, SATURDAY, JUNE 2, 1900.

CONTENTS.-No. 127.

NOTES : Catalogues of English Book Sales, 429 "Blood of Hailes," 431 "Chink," 432 E. East, Watchmaker "Commando" Miserere Carvings Saxon Shore of Britain Genius and Large Families" Centum," 433 Proverb Epitaph at Banbury " Stiver " and " Steever " Ireland Yard, Blackfriars Military Despatch, 434.

QUERIES : " Intentions " " Invisible green " " Lakoo " Game of Tables Shannon and Chesapeake Lovelace a Glover Feary Leyborne Braikenridge, 435 Articles on Hampstead Merrett Vautrollier, Printer Weather Folk-lore "Branch" Powell, the Pedestrian "Bum- mel "Arms of Elizabeth and Edward VI., 436 Old Songs Old Persian Version of the Gospels" Sous," 437.

REPLIES : "Neither fish, nor flesh," &c., 437 Regimental Nicknames, 438 The Flag " Byre " " Cerebos " Rylands Family Kentish Plant-name, 440 Boundaries in Open Fields Bernardus and Bayard Whately and J. B. Peres, 441 Flemish Weavers Lady Sandwich and Lord Rochester Chaussey Basque Book of Genesis, 442 Capt. Goodere Prince of Wales as Duke of Cornwall Blake's Iron Railway "Butt" of a Cheque " Choys " Virtues and Vices, 443 Shield of Brawn Mazes cut in Turf, 445 Mouse and Jerboa Whitcombe, 446.

NOTES ON BOOKS :-Sedgefield's ' King Alfred's Version of Boethius ' Piper's 'Church Towers of Somerset' Masses ' The Abbey Church of Tewkesbury ' ' Cyrano de Bergerac 'Robinson's ' Bruges ' ' Ballad of the Boy and the Mantle ' ' An Evening with Punch.'

Notices to Correspondents.

CATALOGUES OF ENGLISH BOOK SALES.

AFTER, much labour, physical and mental, I have been able to arrange my very long series of English book-auction catalogues, and to draw up a succinct list of them. The collection is not a complete one, for that is an impossibility, but I venture to think that the following list is the longest contribution yet made to a definite list of English book- collectors. As such, therefore, I feel sure that its publication in 1 N. & Q.' will be generally welcome. Many of the catalogues are very scarce, and some are not to be found in the British Museum. In several instances I have been able to identify the names of proprietors of collections which were sold anonymously, and such instances are thus indicated : [ ]. These identifications I have arrived at in various ways. In the case of Sotheby's anonymous sales, the name of the real owner is often to be found inscribed on the back of the volume in which they are bound up ; in some cases the real name is revealed in Mr. Sotheby's ' List of the Original Cata- logues of the Principal Libraries' sold at his house from 1774 to 1830, of which there were three issues, bringing the list of sales down to 1816, 1828, and 1830, respectively. My copy of this list comes down to 1828.

The British Museum collections of Sotheby's, Evans's, and Puttick's catalogues are very nearly complete ; but until these collections each of which is kept separate and arranged in strict chronological order are catalogued, they are a confusing wilderness unless the inquirer happens to know exactly what he wants and the right date. The new century will probably be far advanced in age before an adequate list of these collections can be drawn up. In some few instances where my set of the catalogues of a particular sale is incomplete, I have supplied the entries from the British Museum collection.

In addition to Sotheby's 'List' already mentioned, which was to some extent re- printed by Mr. F. Norgate in the Library for January, 1891, a list of Evans's sales, 1812-1845, was drawn up by Mr. Norgate for the same journal of September, 1891. A further and more comprehensive index to book sales will be found in the ' Catalogue of Bibliographical and other Collections ' formed by S. L. Sotheby, and sold by Sotheby & Son on 27 July, 1831. Of this very rare and extremely useful catalogue I have a copy. Dibdin's 'Bibliographical Decameron ' and his ' Bibliomania ' are, of course, full of book-sale information. Mr. W. C. Hazlitt's 'Alphabetical Roll of Book Collectors from 1316 to 1898,' published by Quaritch, is useful as a string of names, but it gives very little definite information. As a general rule I have not admitted in my list any book sale later than 1886, as 'Book- Prices Current' was started in 1887, which comprises all English book sales of any note. Except in a few important in- stances I have included no anonymous sales ; the exceptions are where the col- lections admit of a definite and composite classification, The temptation to annotate each sale is very great, but I fear that it would occupy far more space than ' N. & Q.' could spare, and certainly far more than my time will allow. The few instances in which I have departed from this rule seemed urgently necessary under the circum- stances. The absence of many catalogues of sales of the highest rank of importance such as the Roxburgh is explained by the fact that, as I have access to the majority at the London Library and elsewhere, I have not purchased copies for my own collection.

The abbreviations S., E., P., and C. are sufficiently explained in the following sum- maries :

S. -Samuel Baker, 1744-1774 ; S. Baker & G. Leigh, 1767-1777 ; Geo. Leigh, 1778 ; Leigh & Sotheby, 1780- 1800; Leigh, Sotheby & Son, 1800-1803; Leigh &