CHAPTER VII AUCTION SALES IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY

The sales of the nineteenth century are so numerous, that they must be treated in a more summary manner than those of the two previous centuries. The Roxburghe sale in 1812 marks an era in bibliography, and after it a series of valuable sales occurred until about the middle of the century, when there was a certain period of dulness, although great sales like those of the libraries of the Duke of Sussex and the Duke of Buckingham (Stowe) took place. In 1864 the fine library of George Daniel was dispersed, when many editions of Shakespeare’s plays, and much valuable dramatic literature, were sold at high prices. In 1873 was the great sale of Henry Perkins’s library, in 1881-83 the Sunderland sale, and in 1882-84 the Beckford and Hamilton sales. These three sales deserve an historian, such as the Roxburghe sale had in Dibdin; but although they created a great sensation, they have not been written about as the Roxburghe sale was. The effect of the high prices realised at these sales has been to cause a great number of fine libraries to be brought to the hammer. The century opened with the sale by Mr. King of the valuable library of George Steevens, the Shakespearian commentator, which commenced on 13th May 1800, and continued during the ten following days. There were 1943 lots, which realised £2740. Useful lists of some of the most interesting books in the sale are given in Dibdin’s Bibliomania and Clarke’s Repertorium Bibliographicum. The whole of the library was sold, with the exception of an illustrated copy of Shakespeare, bequeathed to Earl Spencer, the corrected copy of Steevens’s edition of Shakespeare to Mr. Reed, and a fine set of Hogarth’s