Beschreibung:

THE LAUDERDALE SET OF EARLY ENGLISH AUCTION CATALOGUES -- Extremly early and important collection of seventy-one 17th-century English catalogues, mostly auction, including a few duplicates, some fully or partially priced in a contemporary hand. Mostly London or Oxford: various publishers and firms, 1674-1701. 6 volumes, 4 o (220 x 170 mm. and some catalogues slightly shorter). Uniformly bound in 18th-century half russia, rose boards, edges sprinkled, some edges uncut (some catalogues imperfect [see below], some margins cropped occasionally affecting text); cloth folding cases. Provenance : James Maitland eighth Earl of Lauderdale (1759-1839), M.P. and lord high keeper of the great seal of Scotland (18th-century armorial bookplate) -- sold Sotheby's, 13 December 1991, lot 443. A REMARKABLE SERIES OF CATALOGUES CONTAINING VIRTUALLY ONE-THIRD OF THE ENGLISH BOOK AUCTION CATALOGUES KNOWN PRIOR TO 1689. Lord Lauderdale, who is the first identified owner of this collection and presumably assembled it, was M.P. for Malmesbury when he succeeded to the Scottish peerage in August 1789. Soon after, he was elected a Scottish representative peer. He was strenuously opposed to the Pitt government. Two auction catalogues of the library of his famous ancestor, the second Earl and first Duke of Lauderdale, are included in this set (vol. 6, nos. 68 and 69). This series constitutes a significant record of the auction activity in England during the last quarter of the 17th century. The principal auctioneers were Edward Millington and William Cooper the earliest book auctioneer in England. In a letter from Millington to Joseph Hill who suggested the idea of auction to Dr. Seaman's executors (the first English auction sale, see lot 28), 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). There are eleven sales in the collection that are explicitly identified as being handled by Cooper, and were generally held at his premises at the Sign of the Pelican in Little-Britain. At the end of his catalogue of the library of Walter Rea (June 1682) he fills a blank page ("to supply the vacancy of this page, and to gratifie the Curious, whose Genius may lead them to make perfect their Collection") with a printed list of the first thirty book auctions held in England from 1676 (Seaman) to his present catalogue (Rea). This surely represents the first attempt at a checklist of book auction sales. The Lauderdale set contains altogether 71 catalogues, of which two are not auctions and eight are duplicates. Eight catalogues (including two duplicates) appear to be imperfect. Of the 138 auction sales known to have taken place before 1689, this set contains 42 catalogues (or approximately 30, three pre-dating 1680. Two catalogues are unique. VOLUME I: 1) SCOTT, Robert, bookseller. Catalogus librorum ex variis Europae partibus advectorum . London: R. Scott, 1674. Unpriced bookseller's catalogue. Wing S-2078. 2) Catalogus librorum tam antiquorum quam recentium in omni facultate insignium . Oxford: Thomas Bowman, 28 February 1687. Wing C-1448 (4 copies recorded). 3) SCOTT, Robert, bookseller. Catalogus librorum . [London:] Benjamin Walford, 13 February 1688. Wing S-2080. 4) BERNARD, Edward, Savilian Professor of Astronomy -- Bibliotheca Bernardina . Oxford: Edward Millington, 25 October 1697. Wing B-1985. 5) HARDING, Michael -- Bibliotheca selectissima, sive catalogus variorum librorum antiquorum & recentiorum . Oxford: Edward Millington, 8 November 1697. Wing H-700 (BL copy located only). 6) LEVINZ, William, Regius Professor of Greek -- Bibliotheca Levinziana sive catalogus diversorum librorum . Oxford: Edward Millington, 29 June 1698. Wing L-1826. 7) [OXLAD, John, bookseller] -- Catalogus variorum librorum antiquorum & recentiorum . Oxford: Benjamin