Preface
In 1994, soon after
becoming Director of the
Because of my
responsibility for the editing of the thousands of texts reproduced by
Chadwyck-Healey for the Nineteenth Century project at the British
Library, work on checking the Burney films slowed appreciably between 1992 and
1997, the year in which I retired from London University. Since then I have
managed to accumulate several large boxes of notes based on examination of the
Burney microfilms over a period of many years. No one who has not undergone
this mind-numbing experience can begin to appreciate the difficulties of
carrying out large-scale research using microfilm! Since 1960 I calculate that
I have scanned over 500,000 pages of advertisements in newspapers either in
original format or on microfilm. In December 2007 I began sorting this massive
archive of notes into a publishable form, and the task was finished by April,
2009.
This
contribution to the history of British auction and retail catalogues seeks to
enhance what was achieved by the compilers of the British Museum List of
Catalogues of English Book Sales, compiled by Harold Mattingley and I.A.K.
Burnett and edited by A.W. Pollard published in 1915, and particularly the copy
of this catalogue as annotated by A.N.L. Munby (a photocopy of the original at
Cambridge University Library is available in the British Library); John
Lawler’s Book Auctions in England in the Seventeenth Century (1676-1700), London,
1898; and A.N.L. Munby and Lenore Coral, British Book Catalogues,
1676-1800, published in 1977. Titles are given (they are absent in
Munby-Coral); copies are located (often missing in both ESTC and Munby-Coral);
pagination is provided (absent in Munby-Coral); but, most important, evidence
from advertisements in newspapers has been added: evidence which gives an
accurate account of the time taken to sell the books, and therefore some idea
of the size of the collections and the public interest in them. Where possible
owners have been identified, though a substantial number remain unidentified,
especially where the source gives little more than the fact that the owner’s
name was Smith, and that he was a learned and Reverend
member of the Church of England clergy; or simply a “Doctor”. The clergy are a
primary problem, because over 70% of the owners of books recorded here were
clerics. One day projects like CCEd will
complete the task of making available the vast resources available in the
Church of England archives and simplify the task of providing an identity for
over three hundred still-unidentified clerics recorded here.
In some respects
Munby-Coral is basically a finding-aid: the data provided is minimal. ESTC,
while superior in most respects, nevertheless suffers from strict adherence to
the principles implicit in Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules (AACR2).
Principally, the rules necessitate entries being made under the auctioneer or
retailer (presumed to be the “author” of the catalogue for the sale). It would
have been preferable to provide for each sale where owners are known or stated
an added entry, thereby making it easy to identify catalogues in online library
catalogues. I have included in my listing indexes for owners, and provided
additional information on booksellers stated in advertisements to be
responsible for the distribution of printed catalogues. ESTC overlooks
completely the names of owners; and what is unforgivable, frequently fails to
record the names of owners other than the first! I give British Library and
other shelfmarks (many are not given in ESTC) because they are a sure way of
retrieving most ESTC records.
I had for many
years suspected that a thorough check of the Burney and Nichols newspapers
would reveal much about publishing and printing, and the files I have
accumulated over the years bear ample witness to this. I have found evidence
for hundreds of items in my Bibliography of the English Language for
which no copies appear to survive; for a substantial number of circulating and
other libraries recorded before 1800 not in the conventional histories, and as
yet not incorporated in my Library History Database; and several hundred retail
and auction sales of books owned by British collectors not recorded in any of
the usual inventories. For the period between 1676 and 1800 the number of sales
not previously recorded in Munby-Coral. is over 2,100.
The total number of entries is +/- 4,135.
At an early stage
in carrying out this project I decided to exclude sale catalogues which were
based on private collections purchased by booksellers, but for which no owners
are named. I have kept a tally of these over the years, and this catalogue
would have been almost twice the size had they been included! The purchase of
private libraries by booksellers began almost as soon as sale catalogues became
part of the book trade landscape in the 1680s. By the middle of the eighteenth
century the number of these had grown considerably. Osborne, for example,
re-distributed during his career as a bookseller well over two million books!
The number of books re-distributed by Baker and
Leigh - the “founders” of Sothebys - and James Christie has never been
calculated, but certainly exceeded Osborne’s remarkable total.
The first newspaper
was, as is well known, the London Gazette, the first number of which
appeared in February 1666, earlier published at
It is gratifying to
note that I have found advertisements for the great majority (98%) of
catalogues listed here, except for some early entries, and in most cases these
advertisements contain information not available in the usual sources, such as
the names of booksellers participating in the distribution of printed
catalogues, and their addresses. In more than a few instances the
advertisements enable corrections to be made to the entries in Lawler, BM, ESTC
and Munby-Coral, including incorrect dating (usually when guessed). My estimate
for the number of sales not previously recorded for the period to 1800 exceeds
two thousand! For a relatively small number of sales I record no
advertisements, due in part I suspect, to the imperfect surviving examples of
many newspapers. In hundreds of advertisements it is possible to add
substantially to the book trade information available online at the
Since my principal
aim when I started this huge undertaking was to document libraries by known
owners, so I have not included here trade catalogues of books issued by
booksellers where the provenance is simply “a gentleman gone abroad”, or
“learned and reverend divine”. I have similarly excluded sales of
miscellaneous collections put together by booksellers from a wide variety of
sources, some of which were “over sea”. Although I did keep a count of these as
I found them in the course of reading through the Burney newspapers, to have
included them would have more than doubled the size of this catalogue. My estimate for the total number of sales of books where the owners
are stated for which I have found evidence and which are not included in ESTC
or Munby-Coral. is over 2,300. To this I would
have had to add at least another 1,000+ for trade catalogues. Another category
of evidence are advertisements for household goods and furniture which include
book-cases which begin to appear in the 1730’s, and since it is a reasonable
that an owner selling his/her book-cases had made other arrangements for the
books I have included such sales in this inventory. However, book-cases
included in the sale inventories of upholsterers and cabinet makers are
excluded, as they represented stock-in-trade. Some caution is called for where
I record sales which included book-cases, since these were frequently stated in
numerous advertisements as being used to display trinkets, glass, statues, and
other small objects – these are not, where so described, included in this
inventory.
The entries are
virtually self-explanatory, though brief. Every effort has been made to trace
the basic facts regarding the owners who were members of the clergy, physicians
and surgeons, lawyers and members of the Inns, Members of Parliament, and the
nobility. But there are considerable difficulties with common names like Brown
and Smith! Since advertisements usually provide the names of booksellers
associated with the distribution of catalogues and bidding for books on behalf
of those not able to attend a sale, these have been included. Catalogues were
also, of course, distributed by coffee-houses, and this is duly noted. I have
used BBTI to identify booksellers, but in
many cases the data provided in that database makes positive identification
impossible. In many instances I give the information exactly as found in the
advertisement (“Mr. Smith in the Poultry”) so that when more reliable data is
available in BBTI a more accurate identification can be made. Book-trade
evidence in the advertisements for book sales is, as far as I am aware, a
previously untapped resource, and I record numerous booksellers in the
provincial towns not listed in BBTI. For
Consistency in
recording details for sales where the only evidence derives from advertisements
has been my aim, though frequently - I confess - not always scrupulously
followed, in a project which has been on-going for almost forty years, often
with long periods during which checking the microfilms of the Burney Collection
had to be suspended. There are, I have no doubt, errors in transcription from
microfilms which have suffered over the years from inconsiderate use by readers
in the British Museum and, more recently, the British Library; and the original
newspapers have themselves suffered from exposure to the atmosphere of central
London for a period of over two hundred years. To have achieved complete
consistency in presenting the evidence I have presented here would have
required me to do nothing else for several years. Instead, work on sale
catalogues had to be fitted in to a complex and demanding schedule which
included bringing the ESTC to maturity over a period of nearly thirty years,
while continuing to complete some thirty volumes of my Bibliography of the
English language, in progress since 1958. As work progressed the notes made
from the Burney films had to be stored in boxes, most of which moved from house
to house in England, and finally came to rest in Barbados in 2004. Over 200,000
pre-printed forms then had to be sorted into chronological order: necessary
since the Burney newspapers were filmed in the order in which Burney had them
bound. As anyone with any experience in research carried out over several years
will testify, absolute consistency is a chimera! Fortunately, my efforts to get
the Burney films digitised bore fruit, and in 2008 Gale Research launched the
trial version of what will, I have no doubt, become a primary source for almost
every aspect of historical research into eighteenth century publishing and book
trade history. Access to this wonderful resource made it possible to achieve a
degree of consistency and accuracy that would otherwise have been impossible.
This is so, because the films of the Burney collection available to readers in
the Rare Books Room in the new British Library show the signs of misuse, and in
many case the page-images are now virtually illegible. I had made for me a
special pair of binocular glasses that magnified and added light to the
microfilm images as displayed on the equipment provided in the Rare Books
Reading Room: but in hundreds of page-images even this device failed to make
obscure images legible. Anyone who uses the Gale digitised images will find
similar problems – and the digitisation was made from the original master, not
a duplicate!
Much, of course, remains to be done before we can have a complete account of
book sales for known or reliably attributed owners. While collections like
Burney and Nichols give a wide coverage, the scanning of provincial newspapers
has not proven possible, but I trust that some
intrepid scholar will be able, with adequate financial support, to scan the
newspapers known to exist for
----------------------------------------------------
It is my happy duty
to offer my thanks to all those librarians who have, for fifty years now, suffered
patiently endless enquiries about books and newspapers not just for this
project, but for my Bibliography of the English Language, which has
covered the holdings of over one thousand libraries. As I have been happy to
acknowledge over fifty years of publishing works of a bibliographical nature,
my primary debt is to the staff of the British Museum/British Library, and the
Bodleian Library. Since 1958 my various contributions to bibliography and book
history have been produced with the help of librarians in all the continents,
and most of the countries with research libraries. Having troubled well over
three hundred librarians over the years with requests for more detailed
information on the sale catalogues in their collections the final editing of this
volume in 2007 and 2008 necessitated yet more enquiries. It is one of the
fascinating enigmas implicit in book history: the more you know about a book,
the more there is to know. I am greatly indebted to Majdi Louhichi who has
responded wonderfully to requests for information and photocopies of difficult
items in the British Library; Sarah Wheale for her patience in describing a
number of catalogues in the Bodleian Library which were not catalogued on OLIS;
Andrea Gilbert at the Wallace Collection; Michael Hardy at the Christies
Archives; Vanessa Selbach at the Department of Prints and Photography at the
Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Richelieu; Helen Carron at Emmanuel College,
Cambridge; Mark Purcell, Librarian of the National Trust; Gemma Wright at the
Museum of the History of Science, Oxford; Marie Lagerwall at the Courtauld
Institute; and Jain Fletcher, Special Collections, Young Research Library, Los
Angeles.
Robin C. Alston
Introduction
& & &
Bibliographical References
Abbreviations: ESTC - the English
Sort Title Catalogue on the British Library File; Lawler – John Lawler, Book
Auctions in England in the Seventeenth Century, London, 1898; BM – British
Museum, List of Catalogues of English Book Sales 1676-1900, London,
1915; Munby-Coral. – A.N.L. Munby & Lenore Coral, British
Book-Catalogues, 1676-1800: a Union List,
___________________________________
[In progress of revision and addition]
Aitchison, Thomas. The
Alston, R.C. A Bibliography
of the English Language 1500-1800. Privately printed,
1965-2010. 38 vols. Indexes, Vol. XXII.
An Appendix to Chronica
Juridicialia, viz. from 1685, to 1739.
Bailey, William. Bailey’s
British Directory.
Baker, J.H. The
Order of Serjeants at Law: a Chronicle of Creations, with Related Texts and a
Historical Introduction.
Baker,
William & K. Womack, Pre-Nineteenth-Century Book Collectors and
Bibliographers; Dictionary of Literary Biography, vol. 213.
Belanger, Terry. Booksellers’ Sales of Copyright.
Biography
and Genealogy Master Index. Available online.
Bellenger, Dominic
Aidan. English and Welsh Priests, 1558-1800.
Bostock,
Edward H. Menageries, Circuses and Theatres.
Bowles, Carington.
Bowle’s
Boyle, Patriuck. Boyles New
Browne, John. Browne’s
General Law List.
Brisebois, Michel.
The Printing of Handbills in
Bryan, Michael. A Biographical and Critical Dictionary of Painters and Engravers.
Cameron, Charles
A. History of the
Chalmers, Alexander. A
History of the Colleges, Halls, and Public Buildings, attached to the
University of Oxford.
Chalmers, Alexander. The General Biographical Dictionary.
Chalmers-Hunt, J.M. Natural
History Auctions 1700-1972. A Register of Sales in the
Cockayne, George Edward. Complete
Baronetage.
Cockayne, George Edward. The Complete Peerage of
Collins, Arthur. The Peerage of
Colvin, Howard M. A Biographical Dictionary of English Architects.
A complete guide to all
persons who have any trade or concern with the City of
Copeman, William S.C. The Worshipful Society of Apothecaries of
[Anon] The
Court and City Register.
Dickinson, Donald C. Dictionary
of American Book Collectors.
Dictionary of
American Biography.
Dingwall, Helen M. A Famour
and Flourishing Society: the History of the
Dobson, Jessie. Barbers and Barber-Surgeons of
Douglas, Robert. The Peerage of
Doyle, A.I. “
[Anon] The
Fleming, Patricia
& Sandra Alston. Early Canadian printing: a Supplement to Marie
Tremaine’s A Bibliography of Canadian Imprints.
Foskett, Daphne. A Dictionary of British Miniature Painters.
Foss, Edward. Biographia
Juridica. A Biographical Dictionary of the Judges of
Foster, Joseph. Alumni Oxonienses.
Foster, Joseph. Index Ecclesiasticus.
Geyer-Kordesch, Johanna. Physicians
and Surgeons in
Gibson, William. A Social
History of the Domestic Chaplain, 1530-1840.
Gould, John. A Biographical Dictionary of Painters, Sculptors, Engravers and
Architects.
Grant, Maurice H. A Dictionary of British Landscape Painters. Leigh on Sea, 1952.
Guerra, Francisco. American
Medical Bibliography, 1639-1783.
Hazlitt, William C. A Roll of Honour. A Calendar of
the names of of over 17,000 men and women who throughout the
Highfill, Philip H. A Biographical dictionary of actors, actresses, musicians,
dancersm managers and other stage personnel in
The Historical Register
of the
Le Neve, John. Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae.
Hutchinson, Benjamin. Biographia Medica: or, Historical and Critical Memoirs of the
Lives and Writings of the most eminent Characters.
Jöcher, Christian Gottlieb. Allgemeines
Gelehrten-Lexicon.
Johnson, Richard. The Baronetage of
Kent, Henry. Kent’s
Directory. 1736-1800.
Kidson, Frank. British Music Publishers.
Koertge, Noretta. New Dictionary of Scientific Biography. 8 vols.
Lewis, Frank. A Dictionary of British Historical Painters. Leigh-on-Sea, 1979.
The
Lugt, Frits. Répertoire
des catalogues de ventes publiques intéressant l’art ou la curiosité. 1600-1825. La Haye, 1938.
Also available online.
Ingpen, Arthur R. The Middle
[Anon] The
Marsden, William. Bibliotheca
Marsdeniana philologioca et orientalis. A catalogue of
books and manuscripts collected with a view to the general comparison of
languages.
McDonald, William R.
“Book-Auctions and Book-Sales in the Aberdeen Area, 1749-1800”, Aberdeen
University Review, xlii, pt. 2, Autumn, 1967, pp. 114-132.
McKay, George L. American
Book Auction Catalogues 1713-1934. A Union List.
Medvei, Victor C. & John
L. Thornton, The
Mortimer, Thomas. The Universal Director.
Munk, William. The Roll of the
Munter, R.L. A Hand-List
Irish Newspapers 1685-1750.
Myers, Robin. Antiquaries, Book Collectors, and the Circles of Learning.
Myers, Robin &
Michael Harris. The Property of a Gentleman: the Formation,
Organisation and Dispersal of the Private Library,
Myers, Robin &
Michael Harris & Giles Mandelbrote. Under the Hammer: Book
Auctions since the Seventeenth Century.
Newell, Philip.
Nielsen Papers: Library &
Archives
O’Kelley, Francis.”Irish
Book-Sale Catalogues before 1801.” Bibliographical Society of
Parsons, Frederick G. The History of
Peile, John. Biographical Register of Christ’s College, 1505-1905.
2 vols.
Pollard, Graham
& Albert Ehrman. The distribution of books by
catalogue from the invention of printing to A.D. 1800.
Powicke, Frederick M. Handbook
of British Chronology.
Burbidge, Edward. Contributions towards a Dictionary of English Book-collectors.
[
Redgrave, Samuel. A Dictionary of Artists of the
Rosner, Lisa M. Medical
Education in the Age of Improvement:
Rothschild, Nathaniel Mayer
Victor, Baron. The Rothschild Library. A catalogue of the collection of Eighteenth-Century printed books
and manuscripts formed by Lord Rothschild.
Scottish Book Trade
Index – online at the National Library of Scotland. Cited
as S.B.T.I.
Seward,
William. Biographiana:
by the compiler of Anecdotes of distinguished persons.
Sturgess, Hebert A.C. Register
of Admissions to the Honourable Society of the
Swaim, Elizabeth. “The auction as a means of book distribution in Eighteenth-Century
Yorkshire.” Publishing History, No. 1, 1977.
Todd, John Henry. Some Account of the Deans of
Tremaine, Marie. A
Bibliography of Canadian Imprints, 1751-1800.
Winans, Robert B. A
descriptive Checklist of Book Catalogues separately printed in
McKay, George L. American Book
Auction Catalogues, 1713-1934: a Union List.
McKay, George L. “Additions to
a Union List of American Book Auction Catalogues”, Bulletin of the
[Anon]. The
General Shop Book.
Venn, John A. Alumni
Cantabrigienses.
Welsby, William N. Lives of
Eminent English Judges of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries.
Wollenberg, Susan
& Simon McVeigh. Concert Life in
Eighteenth-Century
Wollenberg, Susan. Music at
Wood, Anthony à. Athenae
Oxonienses. Ed. Philip Bliss.
World Biographical
Information System. Available online.
Young, Sidney. The Annals of the Barber-Surgeons of
____________________________
Form of Entry
1. Owner: name/names + date
of sale (where known) + references to standard sources such as Lawler, Lugt,
ESTC, Munby-Coral, Winans, &c. + place of sale. Sales by auction could be
held at the auctioneer’s/bookseller’s address, or at the premises of the owner.
The latter was normal when the sale included household goods as well as books.
2. Sources: The principal
sources cited are STC and Wing for books printed before 1701; ESTC
for books printed between 1475 and 1800. Other sources used are listed above. Munby-Coral. is cited for items reported in the
British Museum catalogue of sale catalogues (1915) and other sales identified
by A.N.L. Munby in his interleaved copy of the 1915 catalogue – the original
copy of this is in the Cambridge University Library, and a photocopy is
available in the British Library.
3. Catalogue: title as given in
the printed catalogue where possible. In some cases copies which I have been
unable to examine personally are given as reported to me in correspondence. If
photocopies were available I regard them as verified. There are serious
problems which could not be resolved satisfactorily with the holdings of some
libraries, notably the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, some museum libraries
in
4. Bookseller/auctioneer(s): Names as given in
printed catalogues or in advertisements. In many cases these are unrecorded in
BBTI or SBTI. Where there is evidence that named booksellers were responsible
for the distribution of printed sale catalogues these are given, but the first
name in the list is always that of the bookseller or auctioneer primarily
responsible for the sale, whether by auction or retail.
5. Type of
6. Copies: Where numerous copies
are known, usually only about ten are given. In cases where
copies other than the primary one record prices/buyers details, these are
provided.
7. Format: bibliographical
formats are given rather than centimetre height; ESTC practice is followed.
8. Notes: these concern
details about owners and other information, as well references to standard
sources, bibliographical and biographical, as listed above. Given the fact that
attempting to identify over two thousand clerics, doctors, lawyers, and members
of various trades was quite beyond the meagre resources at my disposal,
biographical references tend to be of the most obvious sort: ESTC, O.D.N.B.,
Venn, Foster, &c. Although ESTC was funded by numerous research grants in
the
Advertisements: references of advertisements
traced, with notes where possible of advance notices of sale, or variant forms
of names or dates. The earliest advertisement for a sale catalogue I have
traced is for Moses Pitt’s catalogue of books printed in in 1674: Catalogus
librorum in omni facultate, & lingua rariorum, nuperrimè in Angliam post
novissimum bellum per Moysen Pitt, bibliopolam, ex Hollandia adportatorum. Et
apud eum venales exstantium, in St. Paul Church yard, ad signum Angeli. ESTC
lists only the Bodleian copy, yet notes that the microfilm made by University
Microfilms, reel 396, item 5, was from the copy at Cambridge University
Library, shelfmark Bb*.12.5(F)/14. No precise date has ever been suggested for
this retail sale catalogue, even though the catalogue is listed in Arber, I,
189. It was, I can now confirm, first advertised in the London Gazette,
on October 22, 1674. The punctuation in the title is given inaccurately in
ESTC. There are no prices given, so it must be assumed that prices were noted
in the actual books, probably on a preliminary leaf. The last two leaves
contain a list of books available for sale, with prices. The Burney newspapers
have suffered from the physical conditions in which they were kept in the
There are, as one might expect,
certain items which have been excluded. One such is the catalogue of the stock
of Mercy Browning in her shop in
Prints & Drawings
Catalogues of prints and
drawings have been excluded except for those that list books of prints,
commonly found in most eighteenth century private collections. That I will have
missed many can hardly be doubted, especially where advertisements for
catalogues that do not survive fail to include books of prints. Even checking
titles in ESTC is seldom sufficient since ESTC quite regularly truncates
titles, omitting details of content. Nevertheless, there are a substantial
number of sales included here, and books of prints are always mentioned where
they are present. There is, of course, some ambiguity inherent in the
designation “books of prints” as found in catalogues: it can mean separate
prints bound in a volume; or, more frequently, books illustrated with prints, such
as works on architecture, or road maps.
Statistics
Sales
not listed in Lugt, ESTC or Munby-Coral:
1,826
Sales
not listed in
Lugt
643
Sales
for which no advertisements found
339
Women
owners (marked ♀ in
Index)
185
Sales
listed
3,776
Owners
listed
5,555
Clergy
(Archbishops >
Deacons)
75%
Doctors &
Surgeons
8%
Judges,
Serjeants at Law, Lawyers, Barristers
7%
Nobility
(excluding
Bishops)
5%
Tradesmen, artificers, artists, &c.
4%
Unknown
1%
Omitted Sales
Names
of owners not given
(approximate)
5,700
Trade catalogues
(approximate)
7,300
Sales
of pawnbrokers’ pledges (approximate)
300
One sale, that of the
household goods and books of Lady Louisa Mary Johnston, wife of Sir James
Johnstone was out of scope by one day: the advertisement for her sale was in
the Times on December 31, 1800 for the sale on January 1, 1801.
The commonest anonyms found
are:
learned/eminent/notable/celebrated
divine/attorney/barrister/judge/artist;
man of
fashion/distinction; noble lord; lady of fashion/distinction; nobleman;
officer of merit/gone
abroad/of distinction;
gentleman/lady given up
housekeeping/gone abroad/retired into the country;
person of
rank/honour/fashion;
celebrated
soldier/artist/collector/antiquary/author;
notable/celebrated collector.
Random checks made during the
course of this project show that anonymous sales average 6 per month, 1700-1730
[= 2,000 +-); 8 per month 1731-1760 [= 2,800 +-); 12 per month 1761-1800 (=
5750 +/-). My estimate of the total number of sales were all included (un-named
owners and trade catalogues), and given that all available newspaper sources
were scanned, is of the order of 16,000 +/-. As far as I am aware, no historian
of the book trade in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries has suggested the
magnitude of the recorded book sales before 1801. I leave the record of what
remains to be described to another hand!
From the start of this project
I have maintained a quite separate database of owners, so the statistics given
above are accurate. By about 1995 it had become obvious that to include such
sales would have made this project wholly impracticable.
ESTC
While ESTC is an indispensable
source for books printed before 1801, it does suffer from a number of
weaknesses. The principal one, for those using this catalogue, is that it contains
only a handful of sale catalogues searchable by owner. The unfortunate
consequence of the library cataloguing rules known as AACR2 is that one can
only find a sale catalogue if one knows the exact title or the name of the
bookseller/auctioneer. Another weakness concerns the data provided in the
original title: in numerous cases (always noted in this catalogue) the title is
so drastically truncated that even the names of owners are omitted! With a few
exceptions information about owners is suppressed. Where such information can
be found in the original, or in advertisements, I supply it.
From the beginning of this
project I have maintained a database of Items not listed in ESTC. In 1990 that
number was quite small, but has grown as the project has incorporated the
holdings of libraries other than the British Library. In 1998 I discontinued
the database, and so it is more than likely that by the time this volume is
available for general use ESTC will have catalogued many items for which an
entry in ESTC is not signalled.
There are several ways of
finding copies of sale catalogues in the British Library: (1) the 1915
catalogue; (2) Munby-Coral; (3) ESTC; (4) the Register of Preservation
Surrogates (RPS). It should be noted that RPS does not always list all the
copies in the British Library – thus, Joseph Smith’s library catalogue
published in 1773 has one copy listed in RPS (272.k.7), but the library has a
total of four copies. None of the sale catalogues in the Department of
Manuscripts (shelfmarks P.R. ++) are listed in RPS. Unlike STC, RPS Frequently gives the first named owner the primary heading,
sometimes the bookseller/auctioneer. This inconsistency can, however, be useful
in tracking down a catalogue if the bookseller/auctioneer is not known.
The note “Not listed in ESTC”
signifies that the latest trawl of the records (August 2008) did not list the
work in question: ESTC is a continuing project with records being added and
revised every month.
Ghosts
It is not surprising that
inventories of sale catalogues contain entries that can only be described as
ghosts: they are to be found in Wing, in the
Defective Copies
The British library has a
number of sale catalogues for which the titleleaf is missing, These appear not
to have been included in ESTC and are omitted here: e.g. S.C.144(10);
S.C.326(15); S.C.190(2); S.C.143(3); S.C.550(15); S.C.332(4). They are all
included in RPS.
Manuscripts of Private
Libraries
These are described in R.C.
Alston, Handlist of Library Catalogues and Lists of Books and Manuscripts in
the British Library Department of Manuscripts.
Microfilms
The British Library has made
microfilms in the series Mic.B. of most of the sale
catalogues it owns. These are not always listed in the online Integrated
Catalogue, but are listed in the Register of Preservation Surrogates (RPS),
which can be accessed by anyone anywhere.
Consistency
In a project which has taken so
many years to complete, it is hardly surprising that consistency has proven
extremely difficult to maintain. There have been long periods since 1976 when
other responsibilities have required more of my time, and progress on checking
the Burney microfilms has slowed to a crawl. By the late 1990’s it was obvious
that progress on checking microfilms had to be improved. The only way of
achieving this was to abandon the principle of noting in detail the wording of
advertisements, and this can be observed in the records from about 1765, where
exact wording is replaced by statements such as: “
Discoveries
In a catalogue which records
over three thousand sales not previously known, there are, I feel sure,
numerous examples which would merit further study. For catalogue
which seem not to have survived, two are noteworthy: the previously
unknown catalogues of Garrick’s books and prints offered for sale by Thomas
King on February 15, 1787; and the sale of William Hogarth’s books and prints
on April 29, 1766. A remarkable sale which combines the sale of a private
library as well as books in quires and sale of copyrights is A catalogue of
bound books: being part of the library of Sir Samuel Marwood, entered at
October 16, [1740] – only known copy in the John Johnson Collection at O. An
unusual catalogue was published by Sir John Hill in January 1774 of books sent
to him in exchange for his monumental The
vegetable system and other botanical works – he continued selling books
produced on the Continent to help defray the huge costs involved in producing
the 26 volumes between 1759 and 1775.
Caveat
This catalogue, though it has
taken over thirty years to complete, is still by no means a definitive
inventory. Much remains to be done to identify obscure
owners; and many of the provincial newspapers in the
List of Libraries and Symbols
ABu
ADu
—— University Library
ALu
—— State
AMu
AMr
—— Rijksmuseum Bibliotheek
AMv
—— Vrije Universiteitsbibliotheek
AMH
AMHj
—— Jones Library
AMHu
——
ANN
ANP
ANPs
—— State Library
ARM
ATH
ATL
AUB
AUK
AUKu
——
AUS
AWn
Aberystwyth, National Library of
AWu
——
BAp
Baltimore, Peabody Institute
BAu
—— John’s
Balcarres
Earl of Crawford & Balcarres
BAR
BAS
BAT
BATu
—— University Library
BED
BEDe
——
BEDm
——
BEDr
—— Record Office
BEK
BFl
BFm
——
BFp
—— Public Library
BFq
—— Queen’s University
BINk
——
BINm
—— Kunstbibliothek
BINs
—— Staatsbibliothek
BLI
Blickling, Blickling Hall
BLN
BLO
BLOl
—— Lilly Library
BLOw
——
BMp
BMq
—— Queen’s College
BMs
—— Selly Oak Colleges
BMu
—— University Library
BOa
BOf
——
BOh
——
BOp
—— Public Library
BOs
——
BOu
——
BOU
BRu
BRue
—— Institute of Education
BRB
BRBm
——
BRBs
—— State Library of
BRG
BRGu
——
BTm
BTu
——
BTH
BUYc
Bury St. Edmunds, Cathedral
BUYp
—— Public Library
BUYr
——
BXb
Bruxelles, Jardin Botanique Nationale
BXr
—— Bibliothèque Royale
BXu
—— Université Libre
C
Cb
——
Cc
——
Ccc
——
Cch
—— Christ’s College
Ce
——
Cf
——
Cgc
——
Cj
——
Ck
—— King’s College
Cm
——
Cmp
—— Pepys Library
Cp
——
Cpe
——
Cpl
—— Public Library
Cps
—— Plant Sciences Library [< Cb]
Cq
—— Queen’s College
Csc
—— St. Catherine’s College
Csj
——
Css
——
Ct
——
Cth
—— Trinity Hall
CAh
CAr
——
CAS
Cashel, Diocesan Library
CBh
CBs
—— State Library
CBsu
——
CBu
——
CBA
CBR
CBRu
——
CCH
CCHr
——
CFmw
CFp
—— Public Library
CFu
——
CHa
Chicago, Art Institute
CHiu
——
CHl
——
CHn
—— Newberry Library
CHp
—— Public Library
CHH
Chapel Hill,
CHT
CIA
CLA
CLN
CLNu
——
CLNh
——
CLP
CLS
Carlisle,
CNh
CNp
—— Public Library
CNu
—— University Library
CNx
——
CNT
COC
COCr
——
COCu
——
COKb
—— St. Fin
Barre’s Library
COVr
CPk
CPu
—— Universitetsbiblioteket
CTp
CTu
—— University Library
CVc
CVh
—— Western Reserve Historical Society
CVjc
——
CVp
—— Public Library
CVr
—— Rowfant Club
CVu
——
CYc
CYu
——
D
Da
—— Royal Society of Antiquaries
Dcb
—— Representative Church Body
Di
——
Dk
—— King’s
Dm
—— Archbishop Marsh’s Library
Do
—— Library of the Houses of the Oireachtas
Dp
—— Public Library
Dr
—— Royal
Dt
——
Du
——
DAM
DAV
DAY
DBL
Dunblane, Cathedral
DER
DEWu
——
DRE
DTp
DTu
——
DTw
——
DUc
DUr
—— Record Office
DUu
—— University Library
DUw
——
DUB
Dunblane, Cathedral
DUD
DUH
DUM
DUN
E
Edinburgh, National Library of
Ea
—— Advocates Library
Esa
—— Society of Antiquaries
Esm
——
Eu
—— University Library
EDM
ERFu
ET
Eton,
EUG
EVg
EVu
—— Northwestern University Libraries
EXc
EXd
—— Devon and
EXp
—— Public Library
EXu
—— University Library
Gb
Glasgow, Baillie’s Institution
Gj
——
Gp
—— Mitchell Library
Gsu
——
Gt
——
Gu
—— University Library
GAI
GAL
GDA
GOB
Göteborg, Universitetsbiblioteket
GOT
Göttingen, Universitätstbibliothek
GRs
GRu
—— Universitätstbibliothek
GRE
HAh
HAp
—— Public Library
HAs
——
HAw
—— Watkinson Library,
HAA
HAB
HAD
Haddington, Public Library
HAF
HAFb
——
HAG
Hague, Koninklijke Bibliotheek
HAGa
—— Algemeen
Rijksarchief
HAGcn
—— Centre National de Documentation pour l’Histoire de
l’Art
HAGm
——
Rijksmuseum
HALh
HALs
—— Franckesche Stiftungen
HALu
—— Universitätsbibliothek
HAM
HAN
HAO
HAV
HAW
Hawarden, St. Deiniol’s Library
HAXa
HAXd
——
HAXk
—— King’s
College
HAXl
—— Legislative Library
HAXm
——
HAXp
——
Provincial Library
HAXsv
—— Mount
HEI
HEL
HER
s’Hertogenbosch, Bibliotheek van het Provincial Genootschap
HLp
HLu
—— University Library
HML
HMTp
HMTu
——
HNT
HOB
HOU
HOUl
——
HOUm
——
HOUu
——
HV
Haverford,
INh
INu
——
INB
INV
IOW
Iowa City,
IPS
IPSr
——
IRV
ITH
JEN
JER
JOH
KAL
KANl
—— Linda Hall Library
KANp
—— Public
Library
KANu
——
KEWn
KGS
KI
Kilkenny, St. Canice’s Cathedral
KIR
Kircudbright, Broughton House
KIRh
——
KIY
Killiney, Franciscan House of Studies
KLN
KNO
KRc
KRj
—— Biblioteka Jagiellonska
KRm
——
L
L-Mcm
——
L-Mpd
——
Lc
—— Chelsea Public Library
Lchr
—— Christies Auctioneers
Ldw
—— Dr Williams’s Library
Lfo
—— Foreign & Commonwealth Office
Lfr
—— Friends House
Lg
—— Guildhall Library
Lh
—— Hackney Library
Lhou
—— Hounslow Library
Li
——
Ljs
—— Sir John Soane’s Museum
Lla
—— Lambeth Palace
Lli
——
Lll
——
Lmt
——
Ln
—— National Gallery
Lraa
—— Royal
Lram
—— Royal
Lrca
—— Royal
Lrs
—— Royal Society
Lrsa
—— Royal Society of Arts
Lsa
—— Society of Antiquaries
Lsap
—— Society of Apothecaries
Lsm
——
Ltb
—— Tate
Lu
——
Lual
—— Institute of Advanced Legal Studies
Lub
——
Luc
—— Courtauld Institute
Lug
—— Guy’s Hospital
Luk
—— King’s College
Luu
——
Luwa
—— Warburg Institute
Lv
——
Lwc
—— Wallace Collection
Lwe
—— Wellcome Historical Medical Library
LAM
Lampeter,
LAW
LB
LBa
—— Biblioteca de Ajuda
LCm
LCr
—— Record Office
LCp
—— Public Library
LCu
—— University Library
LDN
LEp
LEr
—— Record Office
LEu
—— University Library
LENa
——
LENh
——
LOc
LOg
——
LOsu
——
LOu
——
Longleat
Warminster, Longleat House
LOU
LOY
LOYu
——
LVa
LVp
—— Public Library
LVu
—— University Library
LWS
Lewes,
MAn
MAu
—— Universidad de Madrid
MAY
Maynooth, St. Patrick’s College
MD
MDS
MEA
MEL
MIN
MINa
——
MINp
——
MPS
MRc
MRn
—— Northern
MRp
—— Public Library
MRu
——
MTLa
MTLu
——
NCc
NCl
—— Literary & Philosophical Society
NCp
—— Public Library
NCu
——
NEW
NEWh
——
NHh
NHy
——
NOc
Nottingham,
NOp
—— Public Library
NOu
—— University Library
NOL
NOM
NOP
NOW
NOWc
—— Cathedral
Library
NOWm
—— Museum
NOWu
——
NWK
NYam
NYc
——
NYgc
—— Grolier Club
NYgts
—— General
Theological Seminary
NYhs
—— Historical Society
NYhu
——
NYj
—— Jewish Theological Seminary
NYmm
——
NYp
—— Public Library
NYpi
—— Pratt Institute
NYpm
—— Pierpont
Morgan Library
NYrt
——
NYsj
——
NYsl
——
NYu
——
NYut
—— Union Theological Seminary
O
Oa
——
Oam
——
Ob
——
Obo
——
Obr
——
Oc
——
Occ
——
Ocr
—— County Record Office
Oe
——
Oes
—— English Library
Oh
——
Ohs
—— Museum of the History of Science
Oj
——
Ok
——
Ol
——
Olm
——
Om
——
Oma
——
Omc
——
On
—— New College
Onu
——
Oo
——
Op
——
Opf
—— Philosophical Faculty
Oq
—— Queen’s College
Or
—— Regent’s
Ora
—— Radcliffe Science Library
Os
——
Osa
—— St. Anne’s College
Ose
—— St. Edmund Hall
Osj
——
Osm
-----
Ot
——
Ota
—— Taylorian Institution
Ou
——
Owa
——
Owo
——
OB
Oberlin,
OT
OTc
——
OTu
——
OTA
Otago, University Library
OXD
OXF
P
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France
Pa
—— Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal
Pg
—— Bibliothèque Sainte-Géneviève
Pi
—— Bibliothėque de l’Institut de France
Ps
—— Bibliothèque de la Sorbonne
PHa
PHac
——
PHd
—— Drexel Institute
PHdr
——
PHf
—— Free Library
PHh
—— Historical Society of
PHhs
——
PHl
—— Library Company of
PHs
——
PHo
—— Office of Commonwealth Libraries
PHph
——
PHps
—— American Philosophical Society
PHr
—— Rosenbach Library
PHs
——
PHt
——
PHu
——
POU
PR
PRn
——
PRu
—— Universitní Knihovna
PRIt
PRIu
—— University Library
PRT
PRTb
—— Botanical Research Institute
PRTsa
——
PRTst
——
PRTu
—— University Library
PVa
PVb
——
PVc
—— John Carter Brown Library
PVh
—— Rhode Island Historical Society
PVp
—— Public Library
Q
Ql
—— Literary & Historical Society
Qla
—— Library & Archives
Qn
—— Bibliothèque Nationale
Qs
—— Séminaire de Québec
REp
REu
—— University Library
RIC
RICh
——
RICp
—— Public Library
RICu
——
RIV
ROC
ROD
ROH
ROHp
—— Public
Library
SAB
SAC
SAF
SAJ
SAK
SAL
SALp
—— Public Library
SAN
St. Andrews, University Library
SANp
—— Public Library
SAT
SATc
——
SAY
SAYp
—— Public Library
SEA
SEAp
—— Public Library
SDI
SDIp
—— Public Library
SDIu
——
SEA
SEAp
—— Public Library
SFcu
SFgu
—— Graduate Theological
SFp
—— Public
Library
SFu
——
SHp
SHu
—— University Library
SKk
SKu
—— Universitetsbiblioteket
SLp
—— Public Library
SLw
——
SLC
SLCb
——
SMh
SPRh
SPRc
——
SPT
STA
STF
Stanford, University Libraries
STLb
——
STLsc
——
STLm
——
STLt
——
SUT
Sutro,
SWc
Swarthmore,
SWf
—— Friends Historical Library
SWN
SWNu
——
SY
SYD
TBW
Tunbridge Wells, Museum
TOp
TOt
——
TOu
——
TOv
——
TLm
TUC
TUL
UPP
UT
Va
Wf
—— Folger Shakespeare Library
Wg
——
Ws
—— Smithsonian Institution
WBc
WBm
—— William &
WEL
WIL
Williamstown,
WILc
—— Clark Art Insitute
WIT
WLG
WLL
Wells, Cathedral
WNT
WOa
WOL
Wolfenbüttel, Herzog August Bibliothek
WRc
WRp
—— Public Library
Yc
Yp
—— Public Library
Yu
—— University Library
Newspapers Cited
This listing does not include
newspapers in the Burney Collection which do not contain references to book auctions
or sales, and the years given are for issues in that collection. Many of the
titles listed here are not in the Burney Collection, but have been checked for
entries, especially catalogues printed in
Adams’s Weekly Courant
1770-1782
Advice from
Parnassus
1681
Albion and Evening
Advertiser
1800
All Alive and Merry, or the
American Herald and General
Advertiser
1784
Applebee’s Original Weekly
Journal
1720-1736
Argus
1789-1791
Athenian Gazette, or
Casuistical
Mercury
1691-1696
Aurora and Universal
Advertiser
1781
Ayre’s Sunday
Ayre’s Sunday London Gazette and Weekly Monitor
1783-1786
Baldwin’s London Weekly
Journal
1769-1797
Bath
Journal
1776-1793
Bingley’s Journal
1771-1772
Bingley’s Journal, or the Universal
Gazette
1770-1771
Bingley’s London
Journal
1772-1775
Bingley’s Weekly
Journal
1770-1771
Brice’s Weekly
Journal
1725-1730
British Chronicle, or Pugh’s Hereford
Journal
1771-1780
British Gazette and Sunday
Monitor
1781-1783
British
Journal
1722-1730
British Journal or the
Censor
1728-1729
British Journal or the
Traveller
1730-1731
British
Mercury
1710-1715
British Mercury and Evening
Advertiser
1780
British Spy or New Universal
British Weekly
Mercury
1715-1716
Briton
1762-1763
Champion, or Evening
Advertiser
1740-1742
City
Gazette
1787-1800
City
Mercury
1692-1694
Collection for Improvement of Husbandry and Trade
1692-1702
Columbian
Centinel
1790-1799
Common Sense, or the Englishman’s
Journal
1737-1743
Country Journal, or the
Craftsman
1727-1750
Courier
1792-1793
Courier and Evening
Gazette
1793-1800
Craftsman, or Say’s Weekly
Journal
1771-1801
Daily
Advertiser
1731-1800
Daily
Advertiser
1787-1800
Daily
Courant
1702-1735
Daily
Gazetteer
1735-1745
Daily
Journal
1721-1737
Daily
Post
1719-1746
Daily Post
Boy
1728-1735
Daily Universal
Register
1785-1787
Dawk’s News Letter
1699-1706
Diary, or Woodfall’s
Register
1789-1793
Dunlap and Claypoole’s American Daily Advertiser
1793-1795
Dunlap’s American Daily
Advertiser
1791-1793
Dunlap’s Pennsylvania
Packet
1773-1777
E. Johnson’s British Gazette and Sunday
Monitor
1784-1800
Echo or
English Chronicle or Universal Evening
Post
1781-1800
Essex
Gazette
1768-1775
Evening
Advertiser
1756-1758
Evening
Journal
1727-1728
Evening
Mail
1789-1800
Evening
Post
1710-1730
Express and Evening Chronicle
1796-1798
Farley’s Exeter
Journal
1726-1728
Federal
Gazette
1788-1790
Felix Farley’s Bristol
Journal
1782-1789
Flying Post or the Post
Master
1696-1731
Flying Post or the Weekly
Medley
1728-1729
Fog’s Weekly
Journal
1728-1737
Freeman’s Journal or the North American
Intelligencer 1781-1792
Gazetteer and
Gazetteer and New Daily
Advertiser
1764-1796
General
Advertiser
1744-1752
General
Advertiser
1784-1789
General Advertiser and Morning
Intelligencer
1777-1782
General Advertiser
Liverpool
1777-1779
General Evening
Post
1735-1800
General London Evening Mercury
1743-1746
George Faulkner
Grub Street
Journal
1730-1737
Hoey’s Dublin
Mercury
1770-1771
Lloyd’s Evening Post (and British
Chronicle)
1757-1800
London Packet or new Lloyd’s Evening
Post
1772-1800
Lounger
1785-1787
Loyal Protestant and True Domestick
Intelligence
1681-1683
Middlesex Journal and Evening
Advertiser
1773-1776
Middlesex Journal or Chronicle of
Middlesex Journal or Universal Evening Post
1772-1773
Mirror of the
Times
1797-1799
Mist’s Weekly
Journal
1725-1728
Morning
Advertiser
1794-1799
Morning
Chronicle
1790-1800
Morning Chronicle and
Morning
Herald
1786-1800
Morning Herald and Daily
Advertiser
1780-1785
Morning
Post
1792-1794
Morning Post and Daily
Advertiser
1773-1792
Morning Post and Fashionable
World
1794-1797
Morning Post and
Gazetteer
1797-1800
Morning
Star
1789
New England
Courant
1721-1723
Observer
1791-1800
Old Common
Sense
1737-1738
Oracle
1790-1794
Oracle and Daily
Advertiser
1798-1800
Oracle and Public
Advertiser
1794-1798
Original Weekly
Journal
1715-1720
Owen’s Weekly Chronicle and Westminster Journal
1765-1770
Owen’s Weekly Chronicle or Universal
Journal
1758-1760
Parker’s General Advertiser and Morning
Intelligencer
1782-1784
Penny London
Post
1733-1734
Penny London Post or the Morning
Advertiser
1744-1751
Porcupine
1800
Post
Boy
1695
Post Boy and Historical
Account
1695-1728
Post Man and the Historical
Account
1695-1729
Public
Advertiser
1752-1793
Public
Ledger
1761-1798
Rayner’s London Morning
Advertiser
1742
Reading Mercury and
Read’s Weekly
Journal
1730-1761
Review and Sunday
Advertiser
1791-1795
South Carolina
Gazette
1732-1775 Charlestown
St. James’s Chronicle or the British Evening
Post
1761-1800
St. James’s Evening
Post
1715-1751
St. James’s
Post
1715-1722
Sun
1793-1800
Sunday
Chronicle
1787-1790