Part 1

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Transcriber's Note: Some typographical and punctuation errors have been corrected. A complete list follows the text. Words in Greek in the original are transliterated and placed between +plus signs+. Words italicized in the original are surrounded by _underscores_.

THE BOOK-HUNTER IN LONDON.

THE

BOOK-HUNTER IN LONDON

Historical and other Studies of Collectors and Collecting

_WITH NUMEROUS PORTRAITS AND ILLUSTRATIONS_

BY

W. ROBERTS

_Author of 'The Earlier History of English Bookselling,' 'Printers' Marks,' etc._

LONDON ELLIOT STOCK, 62, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C. 1895

CONTENTS.

PAGE PREFACE xiii

INTRODUCTION xv

EARLY BOOK-HUNTING 1

BOOK-HUNTING AFTER THE INTRODUCTION OF PRINTING 12

FROM THE OLD TO THE NEW 44

BOOK-AUCTIONS AND SALES 98

BOOKSTALLS AND BOOKSTALLING 149

SOME BOOK-HUNTING LOCALITIES 168

WOMEN AS BOOK-COLLECTORS 259

BOOK THIEVES, BORROWERS, AND KNOCK-OUTS 274

SOME HUMOURS OF BOOK-CATALOGUES 293

SOME MODERN COLLECTORS 299

INDEX 323

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

PAGE 'HIS SOUL WAS NEVER SO STAKED DOWN AS IN A BOOKSELLER'S SHOP.'--ROGER NORTH _Frontispiece_

IN A SCRIPTORIUM 2

LAMBETH PALACE LIBRARY 5

ROMAN BOOKS AND WRITING MATERIALS 11

EARL OF ARUNDEL'S BADGE 16

SIR ROBERT COTTON 21

SIR JULIUS CÆSAR'S TRAVELLING LIBRARY 22

ARCHBISHOP USHER 26

WOTTON HOUSE IN 1840 28

MAGDALEN COLLEGE, OXFORD 29

SIR HANS SLOANE'S MONUMENT 30

LITTLE BRITAIN IN 1550 33

CHARLES, THIRD EARL OF SUNDERLAND 37

LONDON HOUSE, ALDERSGATE STREET, 1808 40

ST. BERNARD'S SEAL 43

MR. AUSTIN DOBSON 45

WILLIAM BECKFORD, BOOK-COLLECTOR 48

GEORGE JOHN, EARL SPENCER 51

JOHN, DUKE OF ROXBURGHE, BOOK-COLLECTOR 52

A CORNER IN THE ALTHORP LIBRARY 53

MICHAEL WODHULL, BOOK-COLLECTOR 57

GEORGE NICOL, THE KING'S BOOKSELLER 60

THOMAS FROGNALL DIBDIN, BIBLIOGRAPHER 63

REV. C. MORDAUNT CRACHERODE, M.A., BOOK-COLLECTOR 65

J. O. HALLIWELL-PHILLIPPS 71

CANONBURY TOWER, GEORGE DANIEL'S RESIDENCE 73

SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE 76

LAMB'S COTTAGE AT COLEBROOK ROW, ISLINGTON 77

WILLIAM HAZLITT 78

THOMAS HILL, AFTER MACLISE 79

SAMUEL ROGERS'S HOUSE IN ST. JAMES'S PLACE 81

SAMUEL ROGERS 82

ALEXANDER DYCE, BOOK-COLLECTOR 83

W. J. THOMS, BOOK-COLLECTOR 88

HOLLINGBURY COPSE, THE RESIDENCE OF THE LATE MR. HALLIWELL-PHILLIPPS 91

JOHN DUNTON, BOOK-AUCTIONEER IN 1698 101

SAMUEL BAKER, THE FOUNDER OF SOTHEBY'S 102

SAMUEL LEIGH SOTHEBY 104

MR. E. G. HODGE, OF SOTHEBY'S 105

A FIELD-DAY AT SOTHEBY'S 106

KEY TO THE CHARACTERS IN THE 'FIELD-DAY AT SOTHEBY'S' 107

R. H. EVANS, BOOK-AUCTIONEER, 1812 109

JOHN WALKER, BOOK-AUCTIONEER, 1776 112

STAIRCASE AT PUTTICK AND SIMPSON'S 113

THE LATE HENRY STEVENS, OF VERMONT 115

MR. JAMES CHRISTIE, 'THE SPECIOUS ORATOR' 117

BENJAMIN HEATH, BOOK-COLLECTOR, 1738 123

SPECIMEN OF TYPE OF THE MAZARIN BIBLE 125

A CORNER IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM 127

ALDUS, FROM A CONTEMPORARY MEDAL 129

THE FIFTY-SEVEN ALTHORP CAXTONS 134

FROM 'GAME AND PLAY OF CHESSE,' BY CAXTON 135

SPECIMEN OF THE TYPE OF 'THE BOKE OF ST. ALBANS' 137

SPECIMEN PAGE OF TYNDALE'S TESTAMENT, 1526 138

JOHN MURRAY, OF SACOMB, BOOK-HUNTER 139

TITLE-PAGE OF THE FIRST EDITION OF 'THE COMPLEAT ANGLER' 144

FROM THE 'PILGRIM'S PROGRESS,' PART II. 145

CORNELIUS WALFORD, BOOK-COLLECTOR 152

THE SOUTH SIDE OF HOLYWELL STREET 153

EXETER 'CHANGE IN 1826 154

A BARROW IN WHITECHAPEL 155

A BOOK-BARROW IN FARRINGDON ROAD 158

A FEW TYPES IN FARRINGDON ROAD 159

HENRY LEMOINE, AUTHOR AND BOOKSELLER 161

THE LATE EDMUND HODGSON, BOOK-AUCTIONEER 164

ST. PAUL'S CHURCHYARD, 1606. FROM THE CRACE COLLECTION 169

THOMAS BRITTON, 'THE SMALL-COAL MAN,' COLLECTOR OF MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS AND MSS. 173

DUKE STREET, LITTLE BRITAIN, FORMERLY CALLED DUCK LANE 175

CHARLES LAMB, AFTER D. MACLISE 177

OLD HOUSES IN MOORFIELDS 178

JONES AND CO. (SUCCESSORS TO LACKINGTON) 180

INTERIOR OF LACKINGTON'S SHOP 181

LACKINGTON'S HALFPENNY 182

THE POULTRY IN 1550 184

THE OLD MANSION HOUSE, CHEAPSIDE 185

GILBERT AND FIELD'S SHOP IN COPTHALL COURT 186

E. GEORGE'S (LATE GLADDING'S) SHOP, WHITECHAPEL ROAD 188

MIDDLE ROW, HOLBORN, 1865 195

WILLIAM DARTON, BOOKSELLER 197

INTERIOR OF DARTON'S SHOP, HOLBORN HILL 198

JAMES WESTELL'S, 114, OXFORD STREET 200

SALKELD'S SHOP--'IVY HOUSE'--IN CLAPHAM ROAD 203

JOHN BAGFORD, SHOEMAKER AND BOOK-DESTROYER 204

MR. TREGASKIS'S SHOP--'THE CAXTON HEAD'--IN HOLBORN 205

DAY'S CIRCULATING LIBRARY IN MOUNT STREET 207

PATERNOSTER ROW ON A BANK HOLIDAY 209

JOHN EVELYN, BOOK-COLLECTOR 212

NEWBERY'S SHOP IN ST. PAUL'S CHURCHYARD 213

CHARLES TILT'S SHOP 221

BUTCHER ROW, 1798 224

CHARLES HUTT'S HOUSE IN CLEMENT'S INN PASSAGE 226

MR. WILLIAM D. REEVES, BOOKSELLER 227

MESSRS. HILL AND SON'S SHOP IN HOLYWELL STREET 231

MESSRS. SOTHERAN'S SHOP IN PICCADILLY 233

HONEST TOM PAYNE 239

HENRY G. BOHN, BOOKSELLER 243

JOHN H. BOHN 244

MR. F. S. ELLIS 245

A CORNER AT ELLIS AND ELVEY'S 246

WESTMINSTER HALL WHEN OCCUPIED BY BOOKSELLERS AND OTHERS 247

JOHN HATCHARD (1768-1849) 252

JAMES TOOVEY, BOOKSELLER 253

JAMES TOOVEY'S SHOP, PICCADILLY 254

BERNARD QUARITCH, THE NAPOLEON OF BOOKSELLERS 256

QUEEN ELIZABETH'S GOLDEN MANUAL OF PRAYERS (FRONT COVER) 262

QUEEN ELIZABETH'S GOLDEN MANUAL OF PRAYERS (BACK COVER) 263

THE FRONTISPIECE TO 'THE LADIES' LIBRARY' OF STEELE 266

ELIZABETH PINDAR'S BOOKPLATE 267

THE ESHTON HALL LIBRARY 269

'EARNING HIS DINNER' 275

THE KING'S LIBRARY, BRITISH MUSEUM 276

'STEALS A BOOK, PLACES IT IN A NOVELETTE, AND WALKS AWAY' 280

'HE HAD PLACED THE BOOK IN HIS POCKET. SOMEONE HAD RELIEVED HIM OF IT' 282

THE LATE HENRY HUTH, BOOK-COLLECTOR 300

MR. HENRY H. GIBBS, BOOK-COLLECTOR 302

MR. R. COPLEY CHRISTIE, BOOK-COLLECTOR 303

THE LATE FREDERICK LOCKER-LAMPSON 312

PORTRAIT BOOKPLATE OF MR. JOSEPH KNIGHT 313

'AN ORDER FROM MR. GLADSTONE' 315

PORTRAIT BOOKPLATE OF MR. H. S. ASHBEE 316

MR. T. J. WISE, BOOK-COLLECTOR 317

MR. CLEMENT SHORTER'S BOOKPLATE 318

MR. A. BIRRELL, BOOK-COLLECTOR 319

FACSIMILE OF TITLE-PAGE, 'PILGRIM'S PROGRESS,' FIRST EDITION 321

PREFACE.

_'THE Book-hunter in London' is put forth as a contribution to the fascinating history of book-collecting in the metropolis; it does not pretend to be a complete record of a far-reaching subject, which a dozen volumes would not exhaust; the present work, however, is the first attempt to deal with it in anything like a comprehensive manner, but of how far or in what degree this attempt is successful the reader himself must decide._

_The task itself has been an exceedingly pleasant one to the author, and it only remains for him to thank, collectively, the large number of friends and acquaintances who have so cordially favoured him with advice and information on so many points. In only a couple of quite unimportant instances has he experienced anything approaching churlishness. The geniality and courtesy of the book-collector are proverbial, but specimens of a different type are evidently to be found here and there._

_As regards the chapter on Modern Collectors, the author's object has been to deal with a representative selection of the bibliophiles of to-day. To aim at anything like completeness in this section of the book would be highly undesirable, having regard to a proportionate representation of the subject as a whole. Completeness, moreover, would be an impossibility, even in a volume devoted entirely to modern men._

_The greatest possible care has been taken to prevent inaccuracy of any kind, but whilst freedom from error is a consummation which every author desires, it is also one of which few can boast. The reader will be doing the author a favour by informing him of any mistake which may be detected in the following pages. An omission in the account of Stewart, the founder of Puttick's, may be here made good: he had the privilege of selling David Garrick's choice library in 1823. The author regrets to learn that Purcell (p. 165), a very intelligent bookseller, died some months ago._

_'The Book-hunter in London' is the outcome not only of material which has been accumulating for many years past, from published and unpublished sources, but also of a long and pleasant intercourse with the leading book-collectors and booksellers in London, not to mention a vigorous and constant prosecution of one of the most pleasant and instructive of hobbies. The author has freely availed himself of the information in the works of Dibdin, Nichols, and other writers on the subject, but their statements have been verified whenever possible, and acknowledgements have been made in the proper places to the authorities laid under contribution._

_W. R._

86, GROSVENOR ROAD, S.W.

INTRODUCTION.

IT would be quite as great a fallacy to assume that a rich man is also a wise one, as to take for granted that he who has accumulated a large library is necessarily a learned man. It is a very curious fact, but none the less a fact, that just as the greatest men have the shortest biographies, so have they been content with the smallest libraries. Shakespeare, Voltaire, Humboldt, Comte, Goethe had no collection of books to which the term library could fairly be applied. But though each preferred to find in Nature and in Nature's handiworks the mental exercise which less gifted men obtain from books, that did not prevent them from being ardent book-lovers. Shakespeare--to mention one only--must have possessed a Plutarch, a Stowe, a Montaigne, and a Bible, and probably half a dozen other books of less moment. And yet, with this poor show, he was as genuine a book-lover as Ben Jonson or my Lord Verulam. Lord Burleigh, Grotius, and Bonaparte are said to have carried their libraries in their pockets, and doubtless Shakespeare could have carried his under his arm.

If all great men have not been book-collectors in the manner which is generally understood by the phrase, it is certain that they have, perhaps without a single exception, been book-lovers. They appear, for the most part, to have made a constant companion of some particularly favourite book; for instance, St. Jerome slept with a copy of Aristotle under his pillow; Lord Clarendon had a couple of favourites, Livy and Tacitus; Lord Chatham had a good classical library, with an especial fondness for Barrow; Leibnitz died in a chair with the 'Argenis' of Barclay in his hand; Kant, who never left his birthplace, Königsburg, had a weakness in the direction of books of travel. 'Were I to sell my library,' wrote Diderot, 'I would keep back Homer, Moses, and Richardson.' Sir W. Jones, like many other distinguished men, loved his Cæsar. Chesterfield, agreeing with Callimachus, that 'a great book is a great evil,' and with La Fontaine--

'Les longs ouvrages me font peur Loin j'épuiser une matière Il faut n'en prendre que la fleur'--

hated ponderous, prosy, pedantic tomes. Garrick had an extensive collection on the history of the stage, but Shakespeare was his only constant friend. Gibbon was a book-collector more in the sense of a man who collects books as literary tools than as a bibliophile. But it is scarcely necessary just now to enter more fully into the subject of great men who were also book-lovers. Sufficient it is, perhaps, to know that they have all felt the blessedness of books, for, as Washington Irving in one of his most lofty sentences has so well put it, 'When all that is worldly turns to dross around us, these [the comforts of a well-stored library] only retain their steady value; when friends grow cold, and the converse of intimates languishes into vapid civility and commonplace, _these_ only continue the unaltered countenance of happier days, and cheer us with that true friendship which never deceived hope nor deserted sorrow.'

It is infinitely easier to name those who have collected books in this vast and unwieldy London of ours, than it is to classify them. To adopt botanical phraseology, the _genus_ is defined in a word or two, but the species, the varieties, the hybrids, and the seedlings, how varied and impossible their classification! Most men have bought books, some have read a few, and others many; but beyond this rough grouping together we shall not attempt anything. One thing, however, the majority of book-collectors agree in, and that is in regarding their own generation as a revolution--they have, as Butler has described it in his picture of an antiquary, 'a great value for that which is past and gone, like the madman that fell in love with Cleopatra.'

Differing in many, and often material, points as one book-collector does from another, the entire passion for collecting may be said to focus itself into two well-defined grooves. A man either collects books for his own intellectual profit, or out of pure ostentatious vanity. In the ensuing pages there will be found ample and material facts in regard to the former, so that we may say here all that we have to say regarding the latter. The second type of book-enthusiast has two of the most powerful factors in his apparently reckless career--his own book-greed, and the bookseller who supplies and profits by him.

'What do you think of my library?' the King of Spain once asked Bautru, the French wit, as he showed him the collection at the Escurial, at that time in the charge of a notoriously ignorant librarian.

'Your Majesty's library is very fine,' answered Bautru, bowing low; 'but your Majesty ought to make the man who has charge of it an officer of the Treasury.'

'And why?' queried the King.

'Because,' replied Bautru, 'the librarian of your Majesty seems to be a man who never touches that which is confided to him.'

There are many varieties of the ignorant collector type. The most fruitful source is the _nouveau riche_. Book-collecting is greatly a matter of fashion; and most of us will remember what Benjamin Franklin said of this prevailing vice: 'There are numbers that, perhaps, fear less the being in hell, than out of the fashion.' The enterprising individual who, on receipt of a catalogue of medical books, wired to the bookseller, 'What will you take for the lot?' and on a price being quoted, again telegraphed, 'Send them along,' was clearly a person who wished to be fashionable. Another characteristically amusing illustration of this type of book-collector is related by an old-established second-hand bookseller, who had bought at a country sale some two or three hundred volumes in a fair condition. But they were principally old sermons, or, what is worse, theology and political economy. He placed a sample lot outside his shop, leaving the bulk of the stock untouched. The little parcel attracted the attention of a stylishly dressed man, who entered the shop and said, 'I'll take these books, and, say, have you any more of this kind with this shield onto them?' pointing to the bookplate attached, which bore the arms and name of a good old county family. 'That box, sir, is full of books from the same house, and probably every book has the same bookplate, but I have not yet had time to examine them.' 'What's yer figger for them, any way? See here, I start back to Chicago to-morrow, and I mean to take these books right back along. I'm goin' to start a libery thar, and these books will just fit me, name and all. Just you sort out all that have that shield and name, and send them round to the Langham at seven sharp. I'll be round to settle up; but see, now, don't you send any without that name-plate, for that's my name, too, and I reckon this old hoss with the daggers and roosters might have been related to me some way.'

'I remember,' says the Marquis d'Argenson, in his 'Mémoires,' 'once paying a visit to a well-known bibliomaniac, who had just purchased an extremely scarce volume, quoted at a fabulous price. Having been graciously permitted by its owner to inspect the treasure, I ventured innocently to remark that he had probably bought it with the philanthropic intention of having it reprinted. "Heaven forbid!" he exclaimed in a horrified tone; "how could you suppose me capable of such an act of folly! If I were, the book would be no longer scarce, and would have no value whatever. Besides," he added, "I doubt, between ourselves, if it be worth reprinting." "In that case," said I, "its rarity appears to be its only attraction." "Just so," he complacently replied; "and that is quite enough for me."'

Another type which borders dangerously near to that which we have been describing is the collector who, not necessarily ignorant, collects for himself alone. The motto which Grolier adopted and acted upon--'Io Grolierii et amicorum'--might have been a very safe principle to go upon in the sixteenth century, but it would most certainly fail in the nineteenth, when one's dearest friends are the most unmitigated book-thieves. But perhaps even the too frequent loss of books is an evil to be preferred to the egoistical meanness of the selfish collector. Balzac gives in his 'Cousin Pons' a vivid delineation of such a person. The hero is a poor drudging music-teacher and orchestra-player, who has invested every franc of his hard-won earnings in the collecting of exquisite paintings, prints, bric-à-brac, and other rare mementoes of the eighteenth century. Despised by all, even by his kindred, trodden upon as a nobody, slow, patient, and ever courageous, he unites to a complete technical knowledge a marvellous intuition of the beautiful, and his treasures are for him pride, bliss, and life. There is no show in this case, no desire for show, no ambition of the despicable shoddy-genteel sort--a more than powerful creation of fiction. A strikingly opposite career of selfishness is suggested by the fairly well-known story of Don Vincente, the friar bookseller of Barcelona, who, in order to obtain a volume which a rival bookseller, Paxtot, had secured at an auction, set fire one night to Paxtot's shop, and stole the precious volume--a supposed unique copy of the 'Furs e ordinacions fetes per los gloriosos reys de Arago als regnicoes del regne de Valencia,' printed by Lambert Palmart, 1482. When the friar was brought up for judgment, he stolidly maintained his innocence, asserting that Paxtot had sold it to him after the auction. Further inquiry resulted in the discovery that Don Vincente possessed a number of books which had been purchased from him by customers who were shortly afterwards found assassinated. It was only after receiving a formal promise that his library should not be dispersed, but preserved in its integrity, that he determined to make a clean breast of it, and confess the details of the crimes that he had committed. In cross-examination, Don Vincente spurned the suggestion that he was a thief, for had he not given back to his victims the money which they had paid him for the books?

'And it was solely for the sake of books that you committed these murders?' asked the judge.

'Books! yes, books! Books are the glory of God!'

Vincente's counsel, in defence of his client, in this desperate strait maintained that there might exist several copies of the books found in his possession, and that it was out of the question to condemn, on his own sham avowal, a man who appeared to be half cracked. The counsel for the prosecution said that that plea could not be urged in the case of the book printed by Lambert Palmart, as but one copy of that was in existence. But the prisoner's counsel retorted by putting in evidence attested affirmation that a second copy was in France.

Up to this moment Vincente had maintained an imperturbable calm; but on hearing his counsel's plea he burst into tears. In the end, Don Vincente was condemned to be strangled, and when asked if he had anything more to urge, all he could utter, sobbing violently, was, 'Ah! your worship, _my copy was not unique_!'