ITEMS FROM THE BOOKSELLERS' CATALOGUES
An extremely elegant little catalogue of old editions of Greek and Latin authors has been sent to us from the "Aedes Dunsteri, Cantabrigiæ, Novang," or in other words the Dunster House Bookshop, Cambridge, Mass. No word in the vulgar tongue is allowed to pollute these classical pages, where everything, with the exception of the dollar sign in the prices, is the choicest Latin.
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We have already had occasion to speak of the Daniel and other private Presses. We are reminded by Messrs. Maggs Brothers' catalogue, No. 385, of the magnificent examples of typography and binding which have issued from the Doves Press and Bindery. A copy of Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained, two volumes, 1902–1905, printed at the Doves Press and bound by Mr. Cobden Sanderson in tooled morocco, is priced at £120. None of the fifteen Doves Press books mentioned in this catalogue is priced at less than £8 8s. Collectors will remember the "boom" in Kelmscott books.
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Good prices were fetched at Messrs. Hodgson's sale on January 28th for first editions of Stevenson. An Inland Voyage (1878) was sold for £22; Travels with a Donkey (1879) and Virginibus Puerisque (1881) went for £16 10s. each. First editions of the Ebb Tide (1894) and The Wrong Box (1889) may be bought for 12s. 6d. at Messrs. Davis & Orioli.
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Messrs. Sotheran's catalogue of the library of the late Sir Edward Poynter, P.R.A., has just reached us. Out of the many items of the greatest interest which this catalogue contains we can mention only a few, notably a fine set of Piranesi etchings, a collection of 250 caricatures by such masters as Hogarth, Bunbury, Gilray, and Rowlandson (£75), a copy of Blake's Illustrations to the Book of Job, presented by Mrs. Opie to the French sculptor, David, with the inscription, "This work, remarkable both for its genius and extravagance, is the gift of Amelia Opie to her friend David, whose own genius will make him prize the former, while his excellent taste makes it impossible for him to imitate the latter." A complete set of the Kelmscott publications, seventy volumes in all, is priced in this catalogue at £900. The main bulk of the collection consists of books on the fine arts, and a certain number of original drawings are included.
A. L. H.