Beschreibung:

ENGLISH AUCTIONS, 17TH-CENTURY. Bound volume containing thirty-three English auction catalogues (including one appendix). All London, various publishers and firms, 1688-89. 4 o (227 x 167 mm). (Some margins trimmed close, occasionally affecting letters, some browning and occasional marginal wear.) 20th-century maroon half morocco. Provenance : "C. Batemans," bookseller who may have formed this collection (cropped signature on 8 May 1689 catalogue); Medical Society of London (stamp on title of first catalogue). A remarkable collection of seventeenth-century English auction catalogues, prepared and sold by various London auctioneers between April 1688 and June 1689, providing a significant record of the annual activity and variety of book auctions taking place throughout the city at this early date (only twelve years after the first London book auction, the Seaman sale--see lot 28). In a letter from the bookseller, Edward Millington to Joseph Hill who suggested the idea of auction to Dr. Seaman's executors, the bookseller "thanked Hill 'for your great Service done to Learning and Learned Men in your first advising and effectually setting on foot that admirable and universally approved of way of selling Librarys by Auction amongst us'" (Pollard & Ehrman, p. 234). Includes auction catalogues prepared by booksellers William Cooper (the first English auctioneer), Benjamin Walford, Edward Millington, John Bullord, among others. The variety of subjects of the mostly Latin and English books offered is quite extensive, and although the majority of the source of material is not identified, the volume contains numerous auction catalogues of libraries of collectors identified by name. MOST OF THE CATALOGUES IN THIS VOLUME ARE KNOWN IN ONLY A FEW COPIES, WHILE 15 CATALOGUES APPEAR TO BE UNIQUE (see below). Contents include: WALLIS, Robert -- A Catalogue of the Library of the Reverend and Learned Mr. Robert Wallis .. [London]: Catalogues are distributed gratis, at Mr. Notts, at the Queens-Arms in the Pell-mell; at Mr. Welds, at the Crown...and at Mr. Walsals..., 2 April 1688. Wing W-621 (2 copies: ex-London Medical [present copy] and Bodleian). Catalogue of Latin, French, and English Books, to be Sold in Numbers, to the Booksellers of London and Westminster . London: Benjamin Walford, 24 April 1688. Coral & Munby, p. 8 (4 copies, including this); Wing C-1352A (3 copies). A Catalogue Choice and Valuable Books English and Latin, &c. On various Subjects . [London]: Edward Millington, 30 April 1688. Coral & Munby, p. 8; Wing C-1295 (2 copies: Bodleian and V & A). Catalogue of Latin, French, and English Books... [London:] Wellington's Coffee-House, 30 April 1688. Coral & Munby, p. 8; Wing C-1353. A Catalogue of the Most Valuable, and Useful Books in the Common and Statute-Law Hitherto Published . [London:] Edward Millington, 14 May 1688. Coral & Munby, p. 8; Wing C-1387 (THIS COPY ONLY). Catalogi variorum in Quavis Lingua & Facultate Insignium Tam Antiquorum quam Recentium Librorum Richardi Davis Bibliopolae. Pars Tertia...per Gulielmum Cooper Bibliopol. Lond. [London:] William Cooper 25 June 1688. MATTHEWS, Mr.; VANAM, Mr.; CROW, Mr. -- A Catalogue of the Libraries of Books of Mr. Mathews, Mr. Vanam, Mr. Crow late of London Merch. Which will be Exposed to Sale by Auction at Mr. Thomas Wards... [London:] Edward Millington, 28 January 1688/89. Wing M-1323. [BROADSHEET]. A Catalogue of Books in Quires, which will be sold in Numbers to the Booksellers of London and Westminster only, on Conditions more advantagious to the Buyers than hath hitherto been proposed..." [London:] 15 March 1688/89. Printed on both sides of a single broadsheet, containing 153 lots. Coral & Munby, p. 8 (2 copies, including this); Wing C-1285 (this copy only). A Catalogue of Vendible and Useful English and Latin Books on most Subjects... [London:] 18 March 1688/89. Wing C-1423 (2 copies: Bodleian and Crawford, Haigh Hall). THOMAS, Christopher -- A Catalog