The Huth Library--Special familiarity of the writer with
it--Seven influential collectors of our time--The great
dispersions of old-established
libraries--Althorp--Ashburnham--Johnson of Spalding--List of the
other leading collections, which no longer exist.
DURING a long series of years it was my special good fortune to see
nearly every week the late Mr. Henry Huth, and to learn from him many
particulars of the sources from which he had derived some of his fine
and rare books. We made Mr. Huth's acquaintance not long after the
enrichment of his library by the sale of George Daniel's collection in
1864; and that, with his very important acquisitions when Mr. Corser
died, and his early English poetry came into the market soon after,
constituted the backbone or stamina of the new-comer. Mr. Huth did not
collect on a large scale during a great length of time; he made his
library, or had it made for him, chiefly between 1854, when he bought
his first folio Shakespeare at Dunn-Gardner's auction, and 1870. Once
or twice his health and spirits failed, and he was always more or less
desultory and capricious. We saw him one afternoon, when he shyly
mentioned that he had at last taken courage to order home the Mazarin
Bible, which Mr. Quaritch had kept two years after giving L2625 for
it at the Perkins sale, and then sold to Mr. Huth for L25 profit. He
did not show the book to us, for he had not opened the parcel, and
confessed that he was rather ashamed of himself. A very curious
circumstance was that one of the Rothschilds, who had been nibbling at
the copy, called at Quaritch's a day or so later, and was of course
vexed to find that he had been anticipated. Huth necessarily bought in
every case, like Addington and Locker, at the top of the market, for
he waited till the books were shown or sent to him; he never searched
for them. Condition governed his choice a good deal; he was fond of
Spanish books, his mother having been a Spaniard, and of early German
ones, being a German on his father's side. He took the classics and
Americana rather hesitatingly, and there is no doubt that the old
English literature interested him most powerfully, as it was most
fully represented on his shelves. The folio volume of black-letter
ballads, knocked down to his agent at the Daniel sale for L750, was
regarded by him with special tenderness; but we think that its real
history was unknown to him. He was not aware that it was only a
selection by Daniel from a much larger number obtained by Thorpe the
bookseller from a private source, suspected to have been a person in
the employment of the Tollemaches of Helmingham Hall, near Ipswich.
Thorpe parted with the bulk to Mr. Heber for L200, and the latter, in
sending the vendor the money, declared how conscious he was of his
extravagance, and asked whether he had been so fortunate as to secure
"the inheritance of the Stationers' Company!"
A far more extensive collection, though of later date, came some years
afterward into Mr. Huth's possession; it consisted of three hundred
and thirty-four sheet ballads of the Stuart period, which had formed
part of a larger lot bought at a house-sale in the West of England for
fifty shillings. Some went to the British Museum, some elsewhere; Mr.
Huth's share cost him L500!
The Huth catalogue is a disappointing production, owing to the
circumstance that a good deal of useful information was suppressed,
and the opportunity was not taken, where expense was the least object,
to furnish an exhaustive account of the books. It is singular that the
Grenville and Chatsworth catalogues were spoiled much in the same way,
and that Lord Ashburnham's own privately printed account of his books
is a thousandfold inferior to the auctioneer's one.
The Duke of Roxburghe, Mr. Heber, Mr. Grenville, Mr. Daniel, Lord
Spencer, Mr. Miller and Mr. Huth were seven personages who exercised
on the printed book-market in their time (to say nothing of MSS.) a
very notable influence, particularly Heber. One might add the names of
Mr. Jolley, Mr. Bright, and Mr. Corser, who severally between 1810 and
1870 made their competition sensible and raised the standard of prices
for many classes of old English books. It was said in 1845, when the
Bright Library was dispersed, that the advance in realised values led
some collectors to relinquish the pursuit. The formation, not only of
such a library as that of Heber or Harley, but that of Corser or
Daniel or Bright, will be in the future a sheer impossibility from the
absence of the means of acquiring in many branches so large a
proportion of the rarer _desiderata_. To gather together a collection
of books on an extensive scale may always remain feasible; but the
probability seems to be that assemblages of literary property outside
mere works of reference will show a tendency to distribute themselves
over a more numerous body of owners, including the public repository,
which year by year removes a certain body of rare books of all kinds
beyond the reach of competition. The Bright episode was to a
considerable extent a duel between Mr. Corser and the British Museum.
But Mr. Miller and Lord Ashburnham, and (it may be added) Mr. Henry
Cunliffe of the Albany, were also in the field; and two years prior,
Maitland in his _Account of the Early Printed Books at Lambeth_, 1843,
already takes occasion to animadvert on what he terms the puerile
competition for rarities, which had then set in.
Miss Richardson Currer, of Eshton Hall, Craven, Yorkshire, whose
extensive and valuable library came to the hammer in 1864, was one of
the most distinguished lady-collectors of the century. There is a
privately printed catalogue of the books, of which two editions
appeared in 1820 and 1833. Miss Currer was a competitor side by side
with those already named for a certain proportion of the literary
treasures which were in the market in her time. The late Lady
Charlotte Schreiber confined herself to a few subjects, of which
playing-cards were one; but both these personages have been eclipsed
in our immediate day by Mrs. Rylands, who conceived, as a tribute to
the memory of a deceased husband, the princely design of founding on
the theatre of his commercial success a grand literary monument, of
which the Spencer books should be the nucleus and central feature.
One of the greatest surprises of our time in a bookish way was not the
sale of the library at Althorp, which had been rumoured as a
contingency many years before it occurred, but its transfer by the
purchaser to Manchester. We were all rather sorry to learn that the
climax had at length been reached; the sacrifice was doubtless a
painful one on more than one account; but it was presumably
unavoidable, and the noble owner was encouraged by numerous
precedents: the fashion for selling had quite set in then. I visited
Althorp in 1868 for the purpose of examining some of its treasures. I
remember the room, and the corner of it where the largest private
collection of Caxtons in the world was kept, and the glass case which
enshrined quite a number of Elizabethan rarities. His Lordship mounted
a ladder to get me one or two of his Aldines printed on vellum. He
showed me a delightful old volume of tracts, bound in a vellum
wrapper, some absolutely unique, which his grandfather had bought,
and a copy of the romance of _Richard Coeur de Lion_, 1509, which
came out of a poor cottage in Lincolnshire. That former Lord Spencer
once did a _gentlemanly_ act in handing Payne the bookseller a _bonus_
of L50, on finding that a volume he had had from him was a Caxton.
Alas! the spell is broken. Althorp was its library, and that has left
it for ever! _Sic transit gloria._
In the wake of the Spencer books have followed those of the late Earl
of Ashburnham, whose representative had previously disposed of his
father's coins and of some of the MSS. The remainder of the latter
still await dispersion or a purchaser _en bloc_.
The Ashburnham printed books included a considerable number of Caxtons
and Wynkyn de Wordes, the _St. Albans Chronicle_ and _Book of
Hunting_, &c., printed at the same place, and many distinguished
rarities in the foreign series of ancient typography; but first and
foremost the Perkins copy of the Gutenberg or Mazarin Bible on vellum,
which realised L4000, being L600 in excess of the figure given by the
buyer. There was also the Bible of 1462 on vellum, which fetched
L1500.
But the prevalent characteristic of the collection was an ostensible
indifference on the part of the nobleman who formed it to condition.
There were several fine books and interesting examples of binding; but
the absence of any definite plan and of judgment was conspicuous
throughout. Circumstances aided the immediate proprietor in his
project for converting the property into cash, and the prices reached
were, in the cases of the early printed volumes by Caxton and others,
simply unprecedented, looking at the sorry state of the copies
offered. The catalogue (sooth to speak) was not very carefully or
scientifically prepared, and when the important lots were put on the
table, the company had, as a rule, some serious deduction to make from
the account printed by the auctioneers. The noble vendor did not see
anything unbecoming in attendance to note the prices of lots during
the earlier stages, and did not disguise his gratification when a book
brought a heavy profit. Yet twenty years ago it was almost accounted a
disgrace for an ancient family even to part with its heirlooms. In
those cases, when want of the money cannot and is not pleaded, the
proceeding seems all the stranger and the more discreditable. The late
Lord bought at the right time, and his son sold at the right time. The
prices realised were not merely high, but outrageous. Yet, after all,
prices are a figure of speech and a relative term. To a wealthy
Manchester manufacturer a thousand pounds are nothing more than four
figures on a piece of paper instead of one or two, and the sole
difference between L1000 and L2000 is the substitution of one numeral
for another.
It was known, in a few cases, what the noble owner had given for the
articles. His _Jason_, printed by Caxton, cost L87 _plus_ commission,
and produced L2100. The _Merlin_ of 1498 was bought for 30 guineas,
and realised L760. A little French volume by Jean Maugin, _Les Amours
de Cupidon et de Psiche_, 1546, was carried to L60, having been
acquired for half-a-crown. Certain other antecedent quotations were
left far behind, as in the _Canterbury Tales_ of 1498, which at
Dunn-Gardner's sale in 1854 brought L245, and now went up to L1000,
and in the Antonius Andreas of 1486, which was thought worth L231, as
probably the earliest volume issued in the City of London.
There was a notable drop in the biddings for the imperfect copies of
Chaucer from Caxton's press, and a host of items went for next to
nothing, which in an inferior sale would have realised far more. It is
ever so; and of course there was half a century's interest on the
outlay. Still what an intense pleasure beyond money it had afforded
the nobleman who formed it! And let us think, again, to how long a
succession of holders the same beautiful or rare book has been a
friend and a companion, a source of delight and pride!
It was remarked in the room that the present Earl had enlarged his
father's possessions only to the extent of ONE VOLUME (No. 2748), for
which he gave L4, and which yielded him L7. He had no right to
complain so far.
Concurrently with the Ashburnham episode in 1897, there came upon us
all, like a shell, the extraordinary report, which proved too true,
not only that the representative of Johnson of Spalding had
determined to part with the valuable library preserved in the house
since at least the time of the Stuarts, if not of the Tudors, but that
Mrs. Johnson had actually called in a local clergyman to select what
books he deemed worthy of being sent up to London for sale, and had
committed the residue to a local auctioneer. _The catalogues were
partly distributed before the books were added_, and very few
booksellers were even aware of the matter, till the sale was over. Not
more than three or so, and a few private persons, were present; the
volumes were made up in parcels and only one mentioned, and the
bidding did not exceed two or three shillings a lot. Supposing 2000
items, comprised in 100 bundles at 3s. each; the grand total would be
L15! Blades quotes the library as containing seven Caxtons, and the
late Mr. Henry Bradshaw thought it worth while to pay a visit to
Spalding to make notes, which he very kindly communicated to us. One
of the purchasers at the sale offered me two of his minor acquisitions
for L30. Although the library included a proportion of desirable
articles, many of the books were esteemed so worthless that the
acquirers removed the _ex libris_, and left the rest behind them!
Some of the Caxtons in the public library at Cambridge have belonged
to the Johnson family, and are supposed to have been formerly
presented to it by those of Spalding. They were acquired in the
earlier half of the reign of Henry VIII. by Martin Johnson at the
then current prices--from sixpence to a shilling or so; and a stray
or two from the same collection, long prior to the dispersion of 1897,
has occurred in the auction-rooms. I have to mention in particular the
_Spalding Chartulary_, sold in 1871. But a few still remained on the
old ground, and fortunately five were bound up together in one volume,
which was not comprised in the wretched _fiasco_ and anti-climax. This
precious collection was offered to Mr. Jacobus Weale, while he was
still curator at South Kensington, for L20, and declined, because, as
an officer of a public institution, he could not accept it at that
price, and was unable to pay the real value. Two, _Curia Sapientiae_,
by Lydgate, and _Parvus et Magnus Cato_, have since been acquired by
the British Museum, with five excessively rare specimens of the press
of Wynkyn de Worde. The National Library did not require the _Reynard
the Fox_ or the _Game of the Chess_.
The Spalding case was as unique as some of the books themselves. The
owner seems to have been grossly ignorant of their value, as well as
wholly indifferent to the property as heirlooms.
Except as a matter of record and history, the collector need not so
greatly concern himself with all those libraries which have been
scattered, and yet he finds it desirable to refer to the catalogues,
if they were publicly sold, in order to trace books from one hand to
another, till they return into the market and find a new
owner--perhaps himself. One might fill a volume with a list of all
the sales which the last forty years have witnessed; but, taking the
principal names, let us enumerate:--
Addington
Ashburnham
Auchinleck (Boswell)
Bandinel
Beckford
Blew
Bliss
Bolton Corney
Collier
Corser
Cosens
Crossley
Dunn-Gardner
Fountaine
Fraser of Lovat
Frere
Fry
Gibson-Craig
Halliwell-Phillipps
Hamilton Palace
Hartley
Henry Cunliffe
Inglis
Ireland
Johnson of Spalding
Laing
Maidment
Makellar of Edinburgh
Middle Hill
Mitford
Offor
Osterley Park
Ouvry
Rimbault
Sir David Dundas
Sir John Fenn
Sir John Simeon
Singer
Stourhead
Sunderland
Surrenden
Syston Park
Way
William Morris (residue after private sale)
Wolfreston
Within these broad lines, which do not include libraries privately
acquired by institutions, such as the Dyce, Forster, and Sandars, or
by the trade, which is an almost daily incidence, are comprehended a
preponderant share of all the important books which have come to the
front since the earliest period, of which there is an authentic
register.
For we have to recollect that many of the persons whose possessions
were dispersed only in our time were buyers a century or more ago, and
had from Osborne, at what still appear to our weak minds provokingly
low prices, his Harleian bargains. By the way, he kept them a
tolerably long time. Did some one help him to find the money, or did
he pay it by instalments? Seriously speaking, it was rather a white
elephant. One of the most notorious private transactions in the way of
sales of books _en bloc_ was that by the Royal Society in 1873 of the
printed portion of the Pirkheimer Library, presented to it by Henry
Howard, Duke of Norfolk, the first president, and originally purchased
by his ancestor, the celebrated Earl of Arundel, in 1636.
The dispersion of the Harleian Library doubtless gave an impetus to
the revival in the eighteenth century of a taste for book-collecting;
but of course a large proportion of the purchases from Osborne himself
was on the part of buyers who parted with their acquisitions, and of
whom we have no further record. But the Osterley Park and Ham House
collections, the latter still intact, owed many indeed of their
greatest treasures to this source. In 1768 Dr. Johnson, who had had a
leading hand in the compilation of the Harleian Catalogue, and had so
gained a considerable experience of the bearings of the matter, as
they were then understood, addressed a long and interesting letter to
the King's Librarian on the subject of the public collections of
Europe and other bibliographical particulars.
Of the libraries above mentioned, the Sunderland, Syston Park (Sir
John Thorold), and Hamilton-Beckford collections owed their chief
importance to early typography, _editiones principes_ of the classics,
and bindings. Among the Blenheim books were a few miscellaneous
rarities in the English class. Of Beckford's volumes many contained
his MSS. notes.
The Surrenden (Dering family), Stourhead (Sir Richard Colt-Hoare), and
Hartley libraries were historical and topographical. In the Inglis,
Dunn-Gardner, and Osterley Park (Earl of Jersey) catalogues we
encounter, among a good deal that is more or less commonplace, the
rarest ancient typography, poetry, and romances.
We next approach the larger and more important Private Collections of
books, which are more or less of a permanent and hereditary character,
and which we have to content ourselves with admiring at a distance or
otherwise according to circumstances. We cannot enumerate the holders
of a few volumes or so up and down the country. The names of which we
think are Devonshire, Bute, Bath, Dysart, Bridgewater (Earl of
Ellesmere), Britwell, Huth, Aldenham (H. H. Gibbs), and Acton (or
Carnegie). The Duke of Fife is believed to possess some curious books
inherited from Skene of Skene. The Duke of Northumberland owns a few,
and a few are in the possession of Lord Robartes at Llanhydrock, near
Bodmin, Lord Aldenham, and Mr. Wynn of Peniarth. All these centres
affect the book-collector in one of two ways: in showing him what
exists, and in showing him now and then what he is never likely to
obtain. For in these repositories there are actually certain things
which have never been offered for sale, and of which the most
indefatigable research has failed to bring to light other examples.
Such is not the case, however, with Lord Acton's library at Aldenham
Park, near Bridgnorth. That is a collection made by a scholar for
scholars; it is wonderfully extensive and complete in its way, and it
were much to be desired that it should be preserved intact. It
commercial value is, relatively to its extent, inconsiderable.
The collections at Chatsworth and Devonshire House (including the
books of Henry Cavendish and many of those of Thomas Hobbes)
principally consist of early printed literature, English and foreign,
and old plays; of the latter the Kemble dramatic library formed the
_nucleus_, Payne Collier filling up at the Heber and other sales many
important _lacunae_. The late Duke ill-advisedly engaged a foreign
gentleman to compile his catalogue, and the result is most
unfortunate. Besides the Henry Cavendish and Hobbes elements, a few
very valuable items came from the old library at Bolton Abbey,
Yorkshire.
The Althorp heirlooms, now removed to Manchester, have been
familiarised by the catalogues of them printed by Dibdin; but there
are hundreds of precious volumes which he has overlooked, and of which
some account is given in the present writer's _Collections_ from the
books themselves. An idea of the Dysart and Britwell libraries is to
be gathered from Blades's _Caxton_, Dibdin's _Ames_, and Hazlitt's
_Collections_. Of the possessions in this way of the Marquises of Bath
and Bute we gain only casual glimpses from the same sources. Payne
Collier and Hazlitt have made the Bridgewater House library fairly
well known. The Huth one is elsewhere referred to, and of Lord Acton's
a sale catalogue of a portion was prepared some years since, as well
as a bibliographical account; but the former was suppressed, and the
latter remains incomplete and in MS.
Of Lord Aldenham's collection (Early English Literature, Bibles,
Classics, MSS., &c.) there is a privately printed catalogue, 1888, and
there is also one of the late Mr. Locker-Lampson's literary
treasures.