The Question of Condition considered More at Large--How One most
Forcibly Realises Its Importance and Value--Limited Survival of
Ancient Coins in Fine State--Practical Tests at Home and Abroad--Lower
Standard in Public Institutions and the Cause--Only Three Collectors
on My Lines besides Myself--The Romance of the Shepherd Sale--Its
Confirmation of My Views--Small Proportion of Genuine Amateurs in the
Coin-Market--Fastidious Buyers not very Serviceable to the Trade--An
Anecdote by the Way--The Eye for State more Educated in England than
Abroad--American Feeling and Culture--What will Rare Old Coins bring,
when the Knowledge of Them is more developed?--The Ladies stop the
Way--Continental Indifference to Condition--Difficulties attendant on
Ordering from Foreign Catalogues--Contrast between Them and Our
Own--_D'une Beauté Excessive_--Condition a Relative Term--Its
Dependence on Circumstances--Words of Counsel--Final Conclusions--Do I
regret having become a Collector?--My Mistakes.
_Condition_, with the majority of coin-collectors, does not rule at all. A
man wants a particular piece for the sake of study or of possession; and
so long as the type is there, he is satisfied. That is the general
religion of amateurs.
With a second section this quality becomes a merit; if the coin is a good
one, so much the better, if it is not too dear. With half-a-dozen
perchance in each generation, if with so many, the state is a postulate;
the purchaser of the item depends on that above everything else; and the
price is secondary.
I have known very few persons in my time, who seemed thoroughly to
understand what a fine coin was. It is not sufficient that it is
well-preserved or even _fleur de coin_; for it may have been badly struck,
or it may be damaged by a flaw or by the cleaner. It should be well
struck, perfectly preserved, and unsophisticated. If there is a tone or
_patina_, that should be pure and uniform.
The value and force of condition in coins are not fully recognisable, till
one is fortunate enough to accumulate a body similar in style and rank. In
a collection of first-rate examples each new-comer enhances the rest, and
is enhanced by them, and the converse is true of the presence of inferior
productions, which demoralise and deteriorate their companions. It seemed
to me that this was signally demonstrated, where at Sotheby's rooms a
ten-shilling piece in silver of the Oxford Declaration type, 1643,
occurred among an assortment of poor material, and brought £14. It was in
mint-state, and in a sale with others of similar stamp would have
doubtless attracted wider attention, and commanded at all events twice the
money. I exchanged it with Lincoln for an indifferent one in my
possession, which had cost me five guineas, and for which he allowed me
eight, so that it came to me at about ten per cent. on the auction price.
My undeviating experience is that the survival of really fine old coins,
except in the Greek and Roman series, where continual finds operate to
shake values, so far as all but the Roman first brass and the Greek copper
are concerned, is very small. I have repeatedly put this point to a
practical test. Mr Whelan once overhauled on my behalf at Paris some 3000
coins, and brought over with him _sixteen_, of which I rejected _eight_.
Messrs Lincoln & Son several years since placed on view about 2000 Greek
silver pieces; of course many were duplicate specimens; but I failed to
discover more than about a score within my rather exacting and trying
lines. At the sale of the United Service Institution in 1895 there were
fully 3000 copper coins; from these thirty or so were selected as likely
to suit me; and I reduced the number on a final scrutiny to half. When the
Boyne cabinet of old continental money was offered for sale, the series
being so peculiarly on my lines, I carefully marked the catalogue, and in
due course examined the collection. There were by estimation 25,000
pieces, more or less; it was a heavy task; but my object was numismatic as
well as commercial. I aimed at taking notes no less than at venturing on a
few purchases; and I found the same thing. The items had been
over-described as regarded condition; and I could not see more than twenty
or thirty, which were likely to be of advantage to me in augmenting my
small gathering without detriment to the prevailing quality. Even in the
Montagu sales of Greek silver, where such high prices ruled, and of which
so much was made in the papers, the proportion of first-rate pieces was
inconsiderable. I went through the whole; and the apology tendered by the
exhibitor before the auction was that many of them were so rare.
This plea may hold very good for a public repository like the British
Museum, which is supposed to possess an example of every existing piece
of ancient currency (by the way, it by no means does); but I maintain that
it is no argument for a private collector, unless it happens that he is
closely studying a particular section of numismatics. Under ordinary
circumstances, the coin, and for that matter the medal also, is to be
treated as a work of art or as a curiosity by its owner or seeker, and it
appears to be inconsistent with the nature of the case to amass a huge
assemblage of numismatic monuments, which are not required for use, and
which are not suitable as ornaments or _chefs d'oeuvre_.
The prevailing standard in our own and in foreign public institutions is
not usually high, because they have been largely indebted to gifts and
legacies in days when preservation was not even so much regarded as at
present. I am persuaded that a fine sense of the constituent features of a
good coin has always been, and remains, a signal exception to the general
rule.
I cannot remember in the course of the eighteen years, which I have
dedicated in partial measure to these interesting objects of inquiry and
regard, more than three instances, in which my _beau ideal_ of a cabinet
has been fulfilled. But I must be careful not to omit to note that I did
not see the Montagu collection of English coins so largely derived from
those of Mr Addington and Mr Bryce. The cases, to which I refer, were
those of Mr Lake Price, Mr Shepherd and Mr Rostron, who observed the
principle recommended by me, and carried out most scrupulously in my own
selection. The result in all instances was that high, and even
extraordinary, prices were obtained. The quality was uniform; there was
_bona fides_; and the names helped. There was, of course, nothing strange
or singular in the realisation of £255 for a _half George noble_ of Henry
VIII.; but what illustrated, as well as any example, the force of a
favourable prejudice, was the advance of a shilling of Charles II. of 1673
(a common date) to £11, because it was marvellously fine, and was in that
atmosphere. I procured an exact duplicate the same day for 14s. The
Shepherd cabinet was remarkable for beautifully struck Anglo-Norman
halfpennies and farthings in silver, some of them of the highest rarity,
if not unique; and, then, Mr Montagu was in the field. Everything
concurred to render the Shepherd affair a great success.
I had not waited for this notable event (it took place in 1885) to come
to the conclusion, that quality was to be preferred to quantity. At an
early stage in my numismatic career, I began to follow exactly the same
rule at a distance--that is, so far as my resources would allow me; and I
vexed the spirit of one at least of the firms, with which I chiefly dealt,
by making it the shoot for my inferior duplicates. I must in this way have
weeded my trays of hundreds of pieces, which satisfied me at the outset,
tolerably fastidious as I was; and I feel the relief and the benefit.
But how completely a hobby of this or any other kind, when it is pursued
as a serious business, engrosses time and attention, and becomes part of
one's life--perchance the greater part, I did not realise for some time
after my entrance into the arena, or I should have hesitated to proceed. A
sensible proportion--almost a preponderant one--of collectors resemble
windfalls; they never arrive at maturity; they commit mistakes, which
dishearten them, or they discover the hopeless magnitude of the scheme,
and abandon it after a season or two, nay, after a single transaction,
over which they chew the cud, with the result that the lot returns to the
vendor at a reduced figure.
The members of the trade are fully aware, that those who are genuine
amateurs, and who never swerve from their undertaking during life, may be
counted on the fingers. The bookseller may have a large number of
customers; but he lives by a very small one; and it is so with all dealers
in luxuries and fancies.
The student of condition in coins and medals is by no means the frequenter
of his premises, whom the numismatic expert most delights to see, although
he may be of the private opinion, that his policy is the right one, for he
is necessarily a difficult person to suit and to please; the man, who
wants the coin, so long as it is authentic and legible, is the more
welcome visitor. He acquires at lower quotations; yet the attendant profit
to the vendor is probably more, because for mediocre property the
competition is so much less severe. Of all clients in the world, those,
who are content to take examples otherwise with no future before them but
the crucible, are the most valuable; they deserve to be bowed in and out.
The rare phenomenon, who knows more than the master of the shop, and
touches nothing but what the foreigner calls _pijoux_, is a questionable
god-send, for he has too keen a nose for rarities, and only carries away
what is sure money and has no determinable value.
A vexatious incident happened to a leading house in this sort of way.
Doubtless every dealer has had his experience of letting prizes go without
being aware of it; and it is a distasteful aggravation of the annoyance to
notify a great bargain to the party concerned. In a window in New Oxford
Street the story goes, that a foreign silver coin was exhibited for sale,
the price 15s. A gentleman of continental origin went in, and asked to see
it. 'Was that the lowest price?' 'Yes.' 'Ah! well, it was a nice coin, but
rather dear. Say twelve shillings. No, fifteen it must be.' But the
proposed buyer continued to look at the piece, and to lament the
impossibility of securing it at so high a tariff, till the owner,
impatient at the loss of his time, agreed to accept the reduction. Our
friend put his purchase in his pocket, and laid down the amount and then,
as he turned to leave the shop, he held up his finger, and with a pleasant
smile observed, 'That co-in worth one hundred pound.'
The feelings of the victim were probably homicidal. He scarcely forgave
me, I fear, for purchasing for £3, 10s. a very fine thaler of Wallenstein,
1632, of which an inferior example just afterward realised a far higher
figure, but which was itself one in a lot sold under the hammer for £1,
14s. It is true that it was badly catalogued.
The English dealers have certainly a superior eye to those abroad for what
I term _state_. There may not be many, who lay so great a stress on this
aspect of the matter as those, whose collections realised in consequence
abnormal prices, and enjoy a classical celebrity; but the mean average
among us is, no doubt, higher than it is either in America or on the
Continent.
The American Coin-market is in a totally different stage of development
from that in Books; our transatlantic cousins have not that local and
technical experience so essential in the study of numismatics; and they
can scarcely be said to compete seriously so far for the rarer and more
important objects. They have in the course of the last fifty years made
very considerable progress, as we all know, in literary antiquities and in
works of art. But the coin and medal have their turn to come. There is
not, perhaps, any one living, who will witness the vast revolution in
prices, when the wealthier citizens of the United States become our rivals
for what is finest and scarcest in this remaining field.
One obstacle in the way of coins coming to the front is the inherent
necessity for keeping them out of view; they are not so showy as pictures,
china, furniture, or even books; and they demand on the part of an
amateur, desirous of accomplishing equally satisfactory results, a larger
amount of study and caution. The ladies frequently influence these things:
they prefer ornaments, which set off their _salons_ and corridors to
advantage; and the numismatist meets with discouragement, unless he is
unusually resolute or impassioned. Nay, it is so in the old country, where
tradition looks farther back, and is more deeply rooted; and the dealer
never cares to see a client enter, accompanied by his wife or daughter.
They operate as refrigerators.
On the Continent with its past infinitely remote, and with its immense
area abounding with centres of culture and inquiry, the general feeling
for high preservation in coins is certainly not so pronounced as among
ourselves. Setting aside, as mere commercial parlance, the phrases
employed by the foreign houses to denote condition, collectors themselves
are comparatively insensible or indifferent to the matter. I have had
frequent occasion to return with a feeling of disappointment specimens
sent me on approval from abroad, and even purchased on commission, where
my agent was the cataloguer, and in my judgment misdescribed the lot; and
a new snare has been prepared for the unwary in the form of illustrated
lists, where, if you select an item which has been engraved, the
auctioneer seeks to hold you to your bargain on the plea that you have had
an opportunity of seeing the coin in the plate. But the fact is that the
coin and the representation of it even by some photographic process are
not necessarily identical, and I should recommend any amateur giving his
orders to a continental establishment to ignore the illustrations as tests
or _criteria_. Several articles in a Paris sale, which appeared very fair
in the letterpress account and in the _planches_ accompanying it, came
over to me; and I peremptorily refused to take them as being at variance
with the catalogue, to which the agent stood at once in the relation of
compiler and owner.
The foreign houses court English support, and although they are fully
aware that their clients at a distance wholly depend on trustworthy
descriptions, they habitually misrepresent the circumstances, and expect
the buyer to bear the brunt of their want of care or faith.
On the other hand, the neglect to convey the full or exact truth may often
arise from ignorance or absence of taste and judgment. For I have observed
the relative valuation of poor, tolerable, fine, and superb examples of a
particular coin in the hands of this or that dealer. An English house
would be glad to get rid of the former two categories at any figure, or
would melt them; the third he would expect to reimburse him for the first
and second; and the _fleur de coin_ or proof he would hardly know how to
estimate too highly. His foreign contemporary acts very differently; he
has a scale, it is true; but between the worst and the best the financial
distance is surprisingly small. For a distinctly bad example he asks you a
_franc_, for a finer one, two, for a really first-rate specimen, four, and
for a proof, six. In the case of one of the English sources of supply,
the difference would be, that for the fine piece you would have to pay ten
_francs_ or their equivalent and for the proof not impossibly
five-and-twenty.
This corroborates my statement, inasmuch as it shews that condition does
not form so influential a factor abroad in determining values, as it does
at home. The 'numismatiste et antiquaire' complacently schedules his
property as _assez beau_, _beau_, _très beau_; all these notations are
practically worthless; the experienced buyer knows beforehand what he will
get, if he sends for the items; and it is wise to limit oneself to such
prodigies of excellence as are shadowed under the terms _f.d.c._,
_superbe_, and _d'une beauté excessive_. When you receive your parcel, you
find that you have what Lincoln or Spink would offer as a fine coin.
Schulman of Amersfoort had my commission in the sale of the local find a
year or so since to obtain for me a gold _zecchino_ of Ercole I., Duke of
Ferrara, which the aforesaid averred to be '_d'une beauté excessive_;' but
a representative of the British Museum attended in person, and bought it
over me. I afterward examined it in Great Russell Street, was very glad
that I had missed it, and procured a better one in the Boyne sale for
less money.
Condition is, after all, a relative term. It depends, 1. on the metal; 2.
on the fabric. Gold and electrum are subject to ordinary wear and tear in
common with the inferior materials used for coinage, and are more liable
to clipping and sweating for the sake of the intrinsic value; but these
products do not suffer corrosion; the only superficial injury which is
noticeable has arisen from their deposit in certain soils, as in the sand
of Egypt, where the effect is to blister or speckle the surface. The
Russian platinum series appears to be sensitive to nothing but friction
and use, and as it has not been an ordinary circulating medium, it occurs
as a rule unworn.
As regards the lower metals, silver, copper, lead and tin, the money
struck in these naturally follows the laws, to which they submit; but it
also exhibits the results of imperfect preparation and alloy. The finer
the silver, the less difficult it becomes to procure specimens in a
satisfactory state; but scarcely any are exempt from oxidisation, which is
apt in course of time to destroy the surface and the type. A peculiar
tarnish, which it is not easy to remove, is found on particular
coins--for example, shillings and sixpences of George III. 1816--and in
metal of low standard an expectation of improvement from cleaning
processes is generally illusory. The presence of chemical decomposition in
copper, lead or tin pieces ought to be sufficient to deter the fastidious
collector from entertaining them as purchases. Copper is heir to all sorts
of ills: verdegris, rust, corrosion, and blisters, and where the defect
has been of long duration, there is no really effectual remedy, as the
recognised appliances may not succeed or, which is almost worse, may
succeed only in part.
Then, secondly, the circumstances of issue, as in obsidional pieces and
other money of necessity, have been so hurried and incomplete, that the
discovery of a faultless specimen is impossible, and it is for the seeker
to decide whether he will tolerate a flaw, which is inseparable from the
acquisition, or dispense with it. I do not of course allude to the
vendor's expression, 'fine for the coin,' but to certain cases, where a
real difficulty exists in every series, especially where _billon_ prevails
in currencies.
So much depends, first, on the skill or care, with which the amalgam was
originally made, and, again, on the subsequent treatment of the example in
passing from hand to hand. The coating of white solution in the older
pieces has almost invariably disappeared; it is something, if the type is
irreproachable.
There is a perpetual confusion in the catalogues between copper and mixed
metal from the failure of the plating operation; but the value is an
almost sure clue. For this reason the 12-_grossi_ piece or _fiorino_ of
Monaco, 1640, should not have been sold in the Boyne auction, 1896, as
copper. But certainly the cataloguer misinterpreted the _G. xii._ on the
piece into 12 grana. That august Government was not in the habit of giving
four shillings for sixpence. These plated currencies are a terrible plague
to the numismatist, as 99 specimens out of 100 have parted with their
white coats.
Where a really valuable and important coin is concerned, it is a subject
for careful deliberation, whether it is best to let it pass, to keep it as
it is, or to restore it. If the foreign matter is merely a loose
incrustation or _stratum_, there is no great uncertainty or danger; where
the mischief is more deeply seated, the risk of failure grows fearfully.
I have a silver crown of Queen Elizabeth in almost perfect state, but as
black as ink; I shrink from touching it. I applied ammonia to a first
brass of one of the Roman emperors, and spoiled it, although the dirt
seemed to be recent and tractable. A _testone_ of one of the Medici of
Florence was perfectly discoloured and disfigured; the most simple of all
remedies acted like an enchantment; it emerged _fleur de coin_; and
whatever objection may be said to exist to these experiments, the
forbearance from employing chemicals, and the natural action of the
atmosphere, gradually bring back the tone and the age.
Where one is able to meet with early _billon_ money, which has
miraculously escaped all deteriorating agencies, it is a real pleasure to
contemplate the mixture of bloom and _patina_, which time has lent to a
piece. But this can hardly occur, unless the proportion of fine metal is
sensible.
In the Greek and Roman series, as well as in those of more modern days,
there are various forms of deception and danger, against which I have had
occasion to guard. Of course no one, who is out of leading strings, buys
a Roman first or second brass, which has been polished with brick-dust, a
lot which had befallen an entire cabinet sold at an auction within my
remembrance. But there are less obvious sources of degradation due to
various causes and motives, amongst which tooling for the purpose of
creating an artificial bloom or _patina_, and plugging in order to
disguise a bore or piercing, are the most usual.
The strangest feature about sophistication and forgery seems to be the
elaborate trouble, which it must have cost to spoil a genuine coin or to
fabricate a false one, where the original in good state is not difficult
to procure. This may be ascribed to perverted ingenuity; but it is
literally vain to attempt to trace to their parentage these phenomena. The
systematic manufacture of Roman money is more understandable, because it
flourished just when that money was most eagerly sought.
After all, the perils which beset the path of the collector, lend a fillip
to the pursuit. Were there not such occasional contingencies, a career
would be really deficient in anecdote and excitement, just as, without its
rocks, quicksands, and sharks the sea would be less adventurous and less
interesting.
* * * * *
I have personally come, and I trust that I may have been so fortunate as
to bring some of the perusers of this small book, to the threefold
conclusion under all the heads which I have discussed: 1. That for all
ordinary buyers for their own pleasure and instruction the Eclectic
principle is the best; 2. That Condition is a primary requirement; 3. That
it is thoroughly practicable for an individual of very moderate fortune by
persevering study--in itself a recreation--to form an extensive and
valuable assemblage of whatever description of artistic property he
prefers on terms, which will secure on realisation the return of the
capital with interest.
This appears to be the only aspect of the Collecting question worth
considering. Wealthy men, who indulge a taste for Books, Pictures, China,
Coins, or Plate, do not commonly sympathise with the poorer sort, who have
to deliberate over a heavier purchase, and to wait years, perhaps, for a
dearly-coveted acquisition; and I pique myself a little on having
achieved under serious drawbacks a creditable degree of success in the
matter of Coins. If I had attempted the same task in other
directions--almost in any other direction, I should have failed, inasmuch
as books, pictures, plate, and china of an equal or parallel quality go
too few to the £1000 to have suited me; and even postage stamps are in an
unreachable altitude for a different reason--it is one of the enterprises,
where exhaustive treatment seems to be an essential feature in the
programme; while the interest is serial and concrete, rather than
individual. One misses the perspective, the art, the sentiment, so
omnipresent in genuine antiquities. As a sort of grown-up child's
hobby-horse it might be well enough, I thought; but when it acquires its
own literature and Society, and, before you can see completeness in the
near distance, locks up the purchase-money of a considerable estate, that
fantasy and myself take different turnings. So that the Coin, rather even
than the Book--not looking, of course, at the practical side--is the most
manageable species of property, for supposing outlay to be a governing
principle, all the other classes of objects of art are more or less
_vertu_; and certain books have of late become so through the entrance
into the field of the Fortunatus type of _bibliophile_.
The diversity of paths is wonderfully great, whether the means of
acquisition are abundant or scanty; and for either contingency, as regards
extent, there is a plea and a defence. The man, who possesses a miniature
cabinet with a few hundred samples is apt to wax tired of surveying his
property, even if they are all favourites with little histories of their
own; and his friends share his tendency to indifference and defection. On
the contrary, when the collection is very extensive and constantly
growing, the personal attachment is transferred to the newest comers. It
is like the mother with her last child; and the owner of a really large
assemblage of coins resembles that of a great estate, who does not see
portions of it from year's end to year's end. He occupies a parallel
position to the master of a grand library, and is a curator with the power
of sale rather than a proprietor and _an intimate_.
My personal tastes are fairly steadfast, and I have never been enabled to
soar into the regions, where some of my distinguished and opulent
acquaintances, such as Captain P---- and Lord G----, disburse more in a
twelvemonth than I have done in a lifetime. But I have been truer on the
other hand, to the plan, with which I set out. I felt certain that I
should have to exercise a great deal of self-restraint and self-denial; I
turned away with a sigh from many a prize, which might have been mine; and
there has been this recompense--if it is one--that I have seen those
coveted objects change hands more than once in several cases, while I
pursue year after year--nay, decade after decade--my humbler programme and
flight, till ultimately I may perhaps succeed, just as I am making my bow,
in the part of the tortoise in the fable.
Some people are supremely happy without books, except the Family Bible,
the _London Directory_, Bradshaw, and a handful of cheap printed paper in
book-form, without china, without coins, without anything except tables
and chairs. Do I wish I were as these? Not, as I now look at life, but
perhaps, if I had, like them, been an eight-days' puppy-dog--then, well,
yes. One of the Huths, with whom I was debating this point, agreed with me
that tables and chairs were very excellent things, but something more was
to be desired, to be cultivated, if possible. But it is as human to go to
extremes, as it is to err in other ways; and some men (I know one myself)
make what ought to be the secondary consideration the first. I do not mean
that I sit on the floor, and eat my food with my fingers; but the little
_additamenta_ to a home preponderate and overflow somewhat; one must take
warning in time from gentlemen, one's predecessors, who at last could
barely find their tables and chairs.
Seeing that I have been up and down the market during a decently long
succession of years, I am perhaps entitled to pay myself a few compliments
on the singular rarity of occasions, which have found me on the losing and
victimised side. Thrice have I suffered for my sins; for it was always my
own fault. I handled things, which I did not understand; it is an error,
against which I should urge every one to guard most strenuously. If you
engage in the purchase of a strange commodity lying outside your own
experience, it is marvellous in how many a way you are liable to the
trumper. It is provoking to note the studious politeness, the almost
brotherly interest, with which your friends will point out to you your sad
mistake, when you have made it. For mysteries, to which you lack the key,
_noli tangere_ is the maxim. There are plenty of objects always in the
market, which are fair to the eye, but bitter in the proof. How grateful I
was to the enthusiast in his teens, who, when I had wasted a five-pound
note on a worm-eaten xylographic block, put down a couple of guineas for
it, and left me only poorer by the difference!
INDEX
A
Addington, Samuel, 97-8, 162, 219-20, 336
Æsop, 126
Ainger, Canon, 39
Akbar, the Emperor, 272
Alexander the Great, 313
Alfred the Great, 306, 323
Allot, John, 125
Anne, Queen, 277
Antonius, Marcus, 299, 313
Arthur of Little Britain, 306
Arthur, Thomas, 132, 134
Ashburnham, Earl of, 321
Astle, Thomas, F.R.S., 158
Atkins, Mr, 260
Auchinleck Sale, 160
Audley, Lady Eleanor, 123
B
Bacon, Francis, 138, 227
Baker of Old Street, 9
Barnes, Robert, 139
Baynes, John, 28
Beauclerc, Topham, 33
Beaumont and Fletcher, 50
Beckford, W., 161
Bedford, F., 165-6, 180-1
Beling, Richard, 96
Beloe, William, 19
Benjamin, 230
Bentivoglio, Gio., 247
Bernal, Ralph, 202, 231
Besant, Sir Walter, 40
Bindley, James, 27
Birchensha, Ralph, 169
Bismarck, Prince, 159
Blondeau, Pierre, 277
Boethius, 24
Bohn, H. G., 16
----, John, 153
----, John, of Canterbury, 139
Bolland Forest, 25
Bom of Amsterdam, 262-3
Bonaparte, Lucien, 155
Boones, The, 45-7
Boswell, James, 27
Boyne, W., 164, 289-91, 334, 345, 347
Bradshaw, Henry, 60
Brathwaite, Richard, 45, 100
Breton, N., 69, 157
Bright, B. H., 64
Britton, Thomas, 27
Brooks, W., 195, 199-201, 209-10, 224
Brown, William, 6
Browsholme, 25
Bryce Collection, 336
Brydges, Sir Egerton, 9, 33-4, 139
Buccleuch, Dukes of, 25
Buchanan, George, 161
Bunbury, Sir H., 321
Bunyan, John, 121
Burke, Richard, 223
Burton-Constable Sale, 154
Burwood, 192
Burt, A. A., 166
Butler, Samuel, 46
C
Camus de Limari, 33
Carausius of Britain, 323
Carew, Thomas, 50
Carfrae Collection, 321
Carmichael, Mr, 138
Caxton, William, 27, 29, 32, 48, 66, 106
Cesnola, 219
Chaffers, W., 228, 233
Chapman, George, 124
Chappell, W., 187
Charlemagne, 306
Charlemont, Lord, 50, 153
Charles, I., 224, 269
---- II., 224, 336
Charron, Pierre, 125
Chaucer, Geoffrey, 111-12, 145, 157-8
Chester, Robert, 85
Churchyard, T., 24
Cicognara, 13
Cleopatra, 299, 313
Cleveland, John, 96
Cockburn, John, 214, 275
Cocker's _Decimal Arithmetic_, 77
Cockpit, The, 36
Coleridge, S. T., 3
Collier, J. P., 19, 21, 59, 160
Constable, Henry, 60
----, John, 134
Corney, Bolton, 154
Corser, Rev. T., 20, 64-7, 88-91, 162
Cosens, F. W., 67-9
Cotton, Charles, 105
Coutts, Lady, 87
Cowley, Abraham, 121
Coxe, Dr, 178
Cranmer, Archbp., 146
Crashaw, Richard, 104
Crawford, Lord, 173-4
Cripps, Mr, 233
Cruikshank, George, 103
Cunningham, Colonel, 51
----, General, 317
Cutlers' Company, 185-6
Cymbeline or Cunobeline, 323
Czar, The, 22
D
Dandolo, Enrico, 306
Daniel, George, 8, 37-8, 50, 59, 84-6, 110
----, Rose, 136
----, Samuel, 89, 123
Davies, Thomas, 131
Davison, F., 70-1
Day, Robert, 231
Defoe, D., 9
Dekker, Thomas, 24-5, 169-70
Demetrius of Bactria, 318
Devonshire, Duke of, 34
Diamond, Dr, 191, 193-4, 213-14, 216, 227-9
Dibdin, T. F., 19, 46
Dillon, Lord, 286
Dodsley, Robert, 129, 182-3
Dolfino, Gio., 246
Donatus, Ælius, 130
Drayton, Michael, 115-16, 154, 170
Dryden, John, 99
Durazzo Collection, 287
Dyce, Rev. A., 36
Dyson, Humphrey, 78
E
Edmund of East Anglia, 277
Edward III., 324, 326
---- IV., 140, 276
---- VI., 326
Elizabeth, Queen, 130, 160, 281
Elkins of Lombard Street, 82
Ellis, F. S., 16, 45, 47, 50, 53, 65, 71, 88, 91-103, 141-2, 162, 204
Ercole I. of Ferrara, 344-5
Ethelred II., 247
Eukratides of Bactria, 318
Evans, Sir John, 218
F
Faliero, Marino, 306
Faustus, 183
Featherstonhaughs, The, 208
Fenn, Sir John, 156-7
Fennell, Mr, 140
Ferdinand IV. of Sicily, 272
Festeau, Paul, 140
Fisher of Midhurst, 208
Fishmongers' Company, 125, 167
Fitch of Ipswich, 38
Ford of Manchester, 26
Ford, John, 51
Foscari, Francesco, 306
Fountaine, Sir A., 161, 213
Francia, 285
Franks, Sir Wollaston, 298
Freelings, The, 52, 92
Freres, The, 156-7-8
Fuller, Thomas, 49, 104
Furnivall, F. J., 99-101
G
Gale, Richard, 195, 201-2
Gardyne, Alexander, 119
Garnett, Richard, 179
Gascoigne, George, 25-6, 33, 145
Gaston de Foix, 306
George III., 22, 326, 346
---- IV., 326
----, W., 135
Gering, Ulric, 30
Gladstone, W. E., 208
Glemham, Edward, 168
Glendinning, John, 207-8
Gloddaeth, 35
Glover, William, 119
Godfrey, Edmund Berry, 231
Gosson, Stephen, 33
Gourmont, Giles, 32
Grant, Sir F., 224
Grantley, Lord, 218, 274-5, 353
Gray, Sir Walter, 153
Greene, Robert, 125, 157
Greenwell, Canon, 218, 220, 270
Grenville, Thomas, 52, 223
Grosart, Dr, 104
H
Halliwell-Phillipps, J. O., 113, 154, 178
Hamilton, Sir Robert, 245
Hariot, Thomas, 50
Harold II., 306
Haroun El Reschid, 272, 305
Harrison, F., 40
Harthacanute, 277
Hartshorne, C. H., 19
Harvey, Gabriel, 25-6
Hastings, Marquis of, 95-6, 105
Hatton, Sir Chris., 160
Hazlitt, Rev. W., 2-3
----, W. 222-3-5
----, Mr Registrar, 2-9, 12, 68
Head, Dr, 270
Heber, Richard, 20-38, 51, 66
Heliocles of Bactria, 318
Henderson, John, 34
Henrietta Maria, 119
Henry I. of England, 306
---- IV. of England, 276
---- VII. of England, 179
---- VIII. of England, 161, 268, 326, 336
---- III. of France, 207
---- IV. of France, 245
Henry, Prince, 125
Henryson, Robert, 126
Herbert, W., 16, 19, 156
Heywood, Thomas, 130
Hibbert, George, 52
Hodge, John, 178
Hogarth, W., 230
Holl, Henry, 146
Hotten, John Camden, 121-2
Hudson, Captain, 254
Huth, Henry, 8, 41 _et seq._, 65, 70, 75-6, 86, 99-100, 104-5, 109,
113-14-15, 123, 135, 139-40, 155, 165, 169, 177, 180, 187, 235-6
I
Ireland, A., 39
Ivan the Terrible, 281
J
Jarvis & Son, 125-6
Jeffreys of Bristol, 48, 135
Jenson, N., 33
Joanna of Naples, 306
Johnson, Richard, 142-3
----, Samuel, 176
Jonson, Benj. 50, 145
Julius Cæsar, 313
Julius II., 285
Juxon, Archbp., 269
K
Kemble, J. P., 34
Kenneys, The, 254
Kerny, Michael, 174, 273
Kerr & Richardson, 166
Kershaw, Mr, 155
L
Laing, David, 61-2, 126, 162
Lamb, Charles, 5, 39, 118, 223
----, Mary, 4
Lasbury of Bristol, 135
Laud, Archbp., 47
Lawrence, Edwin, 67, 195
Lazarus of Holywell Street, 134
---- (silversmith), 230
Lee Priory, 33-4
Leighton, Mr, 7, 179-80
Libri, G., 46
Lilly, Joseph, 50, 65, 81-3, 89, 145, 161
Lincoln & Son, 237-41, 256, 258-60, 333, 339, 344
Locker-Lampson, F., 70, 112, 222
Lodge, Thomas, 135
London Library, 12-13, 15-16, 20
Louis XV. and XVI., 209
Lovejoy of Reading, 111
Lovelace, Richard, 35-6, 50
Lowndes, W. T., 16, 19
Luttrell, Narcissus, 28
Luxmore, Rev. Mr, 141
Lydgate, John, 27
Lyly, John, 135
Lyndsay, Sir D., 94
Lyttleton, Lady, 89
M
Macmillan, A., 223
Madan, Rev. Mr, 178
Mallet, Mr, 26
Malone, Edmond, 27
Maria Theresa, 264
Mardelay, John, 125
Marguerite de Foix, 257
Marlowe, C., 34-5
Martin, Richard, 109
Mary, Queen, 138
Maskell, W., 178
Mason of Barnard's Inn, 99
Massaniello, 306
Massinger, Philip, 51
Matilda, Empress, 306
Maunsell, Andrew, 28, 153
May, Thomas, 145
Medici Family, 248, 281, 306, 348
Millers of Craigentinny, 60-3, 65, 69, 91, 119, 223
Milman, Rev. Mr, 31
Milon of Narbonne, 306
Milton, John, 106
Molini, 13-14
Moncrieffs, The, 4
Monstrelet, 178
Montagu, H., 218-20, 268-9, 276-7, 319-20-1-4, 334, 336
Montaigne, 47, 129, 145
Morgan, 195-7
Morris, William, 102
Mortlock, 209
Morton, Thomas, 168
Mostyn, Lord, 35, 80
Mottley, J. L., 159
Murchison, Colonel, 324
Murdoch, Mr, 218
N
Napier, Miss, 87
Naples, Prince of, 281
Napoleon, I., 274
Napoleon, Louis, King of Holland, 262-3
Nash, Thomas, 34
Nasmyth, 227
Nelson, Thomas, 125
Newton, Thomas, 136
Nicomedes II. of Bithynia, 271
Noble, Mr, 109, 123-4
Noseda, Mrs, 97, 111
Nym, Corporal, 16
O
Offa of Mercia, 323
Offor, George, 153
Orlando, 306
Ouvry, F., 59
Owen, Hugh, 214
Owen or Oswen, John, 153
Oxenden, Henry, 34, 139
Oxford, Bishop of, 38-9
P
Papadopoli, Count N., 246-7, 293
Park, Thomas, 19
Parkers of Browsholme, 25
Peacham, Henry, 105
Peacock of Bottesford Manor, Mr, 100
Pearson, John, 45, 49, 62, 89, 108-12, 155
Pearson & Co., 112, 154
Perceval le Gallois, 32
Petyt, Thomas, 111
Philip III. of Spain, 152
Philip of Macedon, 313
Phillipps, Sir Thomas, 113, 134
Philipot, Thomas, 119
Phillimore, Dr, 312
Pickering, B. M., 49, 51, 105-7
----, W., 87, 103
Pickering & Chatto, 142
Pierceforest, 32
Pliny, 33
Powell, Dr, 139
Price, Lake, 336
----, Lawrence, 140
Ptolemy III., 299
Puttick & Simpson, 151, 167-71
Pyne, Henry, 73-80, 82, 87, 114, 135, 155
Pynson, Richard, 134
Q
Quaritch, B., 8, 13, 29, 50, 52-3, 67, 89, 142, 147-8, 155-7, 162, 166,
171-5, 178-9, 211, 221
Quarles, F., 49
R
Randolph, Thomas, 145
Rawlins, Thomas, 269
Rawlinson, Thomas, 27
Reed, Isaac, 31, 34-35
Reeves & Turner, 78, 111, 128-33, 182
Reynardson, Mr, 90
Reynell, C. W., 4, 7, 226
Reynolds, Sir Joshua, 223
Reynolds of Hart Street, 195, 202-3, 205-6, 210, 215-16
Richard, Coeur-de-Lion, 306
Richard III., 140, 276
Richard de Benese, 121
Richardson, Mr, 220
Rich's News from Virginia, 50
Ridler, W., 132-3-4
Rimbault, Dr, 155-6
Rimells, The, 119
Riviere, Robert, 61, 94-5, 124, 180
Ritson, Joseph, 19, 27, 28
Robert le Diable, 306
---- of Sicily, 306
Robespierre, 212
Robin Hood, 183
Robinson, Richard, 30
Rodd, Thomas, 30, 64
Rogers, Samuel, 63
Roland, 306
Rollin & Feuardent, 218, 221, 256
Rose, James Anderson, 192
----, Sir W., 192
Rosebery, Lord, 126
Rostron Collection, 336
Roy, William, 29
Ruskin, John, 13, 111, 219
S
Sabin, Mr., 140
Salkeld, John, 122-3-4
Sandby, P., 227
Sanders, Samuel, 67
----, Mr, of Chiswick, 198-9
Schinner, Nicolas, Bp. of Sion, 280
Schulman, J., 261-4, 286, 330, 344
Scott, Sir Walter, 138
Selsey, Lord, 47
Shakespear, W., 3, 31, 34-5, 49-50, 85-8, 112, 132, 136, 138, 145, 158,
181
Shepherd Collection, 336
Shirley, James, 51, 156
Simeon, Sir John, 162
Singer, S. W., 7
Sion College, 31
Slatyer, W., 134
Smith, A. R., 120-1, 153
----, J. R., 17, 120-1, 182
----, Samuel, 286
Somers, Lord, 170-1
Sotheby & Co., 86, 151-2-67, 226-7, 255-6, 289
Southwell, Robert, 112
Spencer, Lord, 49, 223
Spenser, Edmund, 32, 99, 112, 136
Spink & Son, 277-83, 288, 344
Stanfield, 227
Steevens, George, 26-7, 29, 34-5, 160
Stevens, Henry, 178
Stibbs, Edward, 6, 51, 96, 124, 213
Stirling-Maxwell, Sir W., 180
Stock, Elliot, 136-7
Stoddarts, The, 4
Stopes, Henry, 137-8
----, James, 138
----, Leonard, 138
----, Mrs, 138
Stubbs, Dr, 38-9
Suckling, Sir John, 183
Surrey, Earl of, 163
Swainson, Mr, 160
Swinburne, A. C., 103
Sylvester, Joshua, 124
T
Tatham, John, 35
Taylor, Jeremy, 49, 107
----, John, 105-7, 111, 119-21
Thorpe, Thomas, 37, 64
Thuanus, 161
Todd, Rev. H. J., 32
Tollemaches, The, 38, 85
Toovey, James, 47, 113, 123
Turbervile, George, 44, 111
Turner, R. S., 8, 67
V
Varley, 227
Vaughan, Henry, 121
Verstegan, Richard, 94-5
Virgil, 163
Vitalini, 287
W
Wake, Henry, 131-2, 134-5
Walfords, The, 29, 119-20, 164
Wallenstein, 305, 340
Waller, Edmond, 118
Wallers, The, 118-19, 212
Walton, Isaak, 88, 111-12
Ware, Sir James, 96
Warly, Lee, 139
Warren, W., 162
Warton, Thomas, 31, 34
Watson-Taylor, 29
Watts, Thomas, 175
Way, G. W., 160
Wells, _Pedigree_, 270
Westerton, Charles, 146
Westmoreland, Earl of, 17
Whelan, F., 218-21, 267-74, 333
_Whisperer, The_, A play,36
Whittington, Sir Richard, 40, 165
Wigan, Edward, 267
William IV., 324
Willis & Sotheran, 113
Withals, John, 94, 99
Wither, George, 49, 123, 154
Wolfrestons, The, 104, 140
Wynkyn de Worde, 27, 48, 132-4, 141
Wynne, Edward, of Chelsea, 28
Wyon, W., 213
Y
Yates, James, 90
_Colston & Coy. Limited, Printers, Edinburgh._
Transcriber's Notes:
Passages in italics are indicated by _italics_.
The original text contains a letter with a diacritical mark that is not
represented in this text version.
The original text includes Greek characters that have been replaced with
transliterations in this text version.