The Royal Initials ensigned with a Royal Crown.
[Allionius. Tractatio de Miliarium origine et curatione. Aug. Taurinorum, 1758.]
The Irish Harp, crowned.
[Lord's Journals of Ireland. Dublin, 1780.]
George III. (born 4th June 1738, died 29th January 1820) was the eldest son of Frederick, Prince of Wales, and grandson of George II. He succeeded to the throne in 1760.
The troubles in Ireland ended, for a time, in the Legislative Union in 1801. During the latter part of his reign George III. became insane and the Prince of Wales was appointed Regent. Almost as soon as George III. succeeded to the throne he began collecting books, no doubt to a great extent induced to do so because of the fact that George II. had practically denuded the Royal Libraries of their treasures in 1757, but in many ways he possessed the true collector's instinct. The Royal Librarian was Sir Frederick Barnard, K.C.H., who travelled about the Continent seeking early editions and desirable books generally, under the advice of Dr. Samuel Johnson. Besides the books collected abroad by Sir Frederick, large numbers were acquired in England, among these the entire library of Joseph Smith, British Consul at Venice. Sir Frederick Barnard did not neglect the sale-room, and he acquired especially valuable additions to the Royal Library at the sales of the important libraries of James West, John Ratcliffe, and Richard Farmer, all of which took place about the same time.
The library collected by George III. is now housed in the beautiful room known as the "King's Library" in the British Museum. All the books have one or other of the many book-stamps used by the King impressed upon them, either on the sides or on the back. The estimated number of volumes in the library at the time of its acquisition by the British Museum was about eighty-four thousand, as well as a very large collection of charts, maps, and drawings, and several manuscripts. The books in the King's Library are in splendid condition, and among them are numbers of precious bindings, especially later English, Scottish, and Irish. Several of the Royal books were bound by Charles Kalthoeber, a German binder who copied the style and stamps used by Roger Payne.