DORÉ'S Illustrated Works. The Holy Bible. With 230 superb Engravings, in two handsome volumes, bound in cloth, $64; best Turkey morocco, from $100. Milton's Paradise Lost. Cloth, $40; Turkey morocco, from $60. Dante's Inferno. E. STEIGER German News Agent, IMPORTER & BOOKSELLER, 22 & 24 Frankfort St., NEW YORK, Keeps on Hand the Largest Stock OF Cloth, $25; best Turkey morocco, from GERMAN BOOKS $40. LEAVITT, STREBEIGH & CO., Clinton Hall, Astor Place, New York. Book Trade Sale Rooms and Art Galleries AMERICANA ! Now ready. Price 50 cents. CATALOGUE OF THE PRIVATE LIBRARY of Mr. W. Elliot Woodward, Roxbury, Mass. The Catalogue will contain some 600 pages, containing upwards of 6,000 titles, consisting almost Exclusively of American Books, and specially rich in scarce pamphlets. Of Local Histories, there are nearly or quite 500 titles; of Washingtoniana, upwards of 300 titles, a large part of which are memorials of Washington's death; of Eulogies pronounced on that occasion, there are nearly 200. We think it may safely be said that the collection of Washingtoniana is unequalled. The memorials of the death of the late President Lincoln are still more numerous, comprising nearly everything published concerning that event in book or pamphlet form. The collection contains a great number of books by early New England authors, upwards of fifty by the Mathers, several by Elliot, not to mention many names hardly less prominent. One feature is, nearly a complete collection of the early works relating to Salem Witchcraft in New England, comprising Mather's Wonders of the Invisible World, a work which it is believed has never before been offered at auction in America; Colef's "More Wonders," probably the finest known copy; Mather's Cases of Conscience, hardly less rare than the Wonders, and others equally desirable. Indian Captivities are largely represented, also other matters relating to the Indians. From more than a hundred titles we select for notice, Wheeler's Thankful Remembrance of God's Mercy, quarto, Boston, 1676, a book so rare that Gov. Hutchinson, whose ancestor fell at Brookfield, could not, in his day, find a copy in the country. Both of the early editions of Hubbard's Indian Wars, as well as nearly every edition since published. A collection of American Trials is also a noticeable feature. Concerning a library so varied in character, but little idea can be given in the limit of an advertisement, but an examination of the catalogue will at once make manifest the fact that the collection is one of most remarkable character, consisting, in great part, of books which are seldom offered for sale. This Sale will commence Monday, April 19, and continue daily, in order of the Catalogue, until all is sold, at 4 o'clock p. m., each day. AMERICAN BIBLIOPOLIST. A Literary Register and Monthly Catalogue of Old and New Books, and Repository of Notes and Queries. Vol. 1. NEW YORK, APRIL, 1869. No. 4. The design of The American Bibliopolist is to place before the book buying public, a continuous Register of the many Additions the undersigned are constantly making to their Stock: Lists of New Publicatims, English and American: Notices of the Sales of Books at Auction, and Reports concerning important items Useful Hints and Suggestions as to the best Editions, etc.; Lists of Books wanted to purchase, and Incidental Discussions on Matters appertaining to Books in general. Subscription, for One Year, One Dollar. Advertisements will be inserted at $10 per page; $6 for half a page, and $4 for a quarter of a page. Auction Sales, J. SABIN & SONS, Publishers, 84 Nassau Street, N. Y. The sale of what the catalogue compiler calls "The Entire Private Library of the late Hon. Albert G. Greene, formerly resident of Providence, R. I., and more recently of Cleveland, Ohio," commenced at the auction rooms of Messrs. Bangs, Merwin & Co., on Monday, March 29th, and lasted one week. The catalogue is a portly volume of 521 pages, describing 6742 lots of books and pamphlets. Its preparation must have occupied months, but the result is a complicated affair-neither alphabetical nor classified, but a little of both. The cover gives an epitome of the contents in the following advertisement : "This LIBRARY embraces an immense number of volumes, many of which concern the EARLY HISTORY OF AMERICA,-and of PAMPHLETS and other works that were printed in New England, relating to its history, especially to that of the State of Rhode Island. It also comprehends an unusual collection of AMERICAN POETRY, rare volumes of early ENGLISH POETRY, and SCARCE BOOKS in the various departments of American and European Literature." Then comes the "Notice" in the same elegant style : "The present Catalogue comprises the entire Private Library of Judge Greene, with the exception of duplicate volumes of the same edition. No books have been added to the collection for sale.t "Judge Greene's Library was collected for his own use, and is singularly varied and extensive. A man of delicate literary taste, it is not strange that in it are to be found many volumes of rare English Poetry not commonly met with. His antiquarian collection also led him to perfect, as far as he might, his collections relating to American History, and especially to that of his native State. His collection of Pamphlets was large and carefully arranged." The special feature of his Library, and the one by which it was the most widely known, is the department of American Poetry, which is catalogued by itself. It is probably the largest collection existing of that department. "The books are supposed to be perfect and in fair condition unless otherwise noted The American books are mostly in the same *We are not informed as to the Public Library, if any. This is intended to mean that all the books described belong to the estate. This is perhaps a novel feature. Certainly the rare books could not be 'common.' condition as published, very few having been rebound. A large majority of those in boards are uncut. Many of the volumes of the English poetry are bound substantially in calf and are in good condition." This is scarcely Addisonian-indeed it seems based on some recent efforts of the same kind. Reading the catalogue after this notice reminds us of the sea-captain's story, and the ejaculation of his listner, "I want to know!" at the end of an extraordinary statement. We are in precisely the same position as this listener-we "want to know where are all the works (the "immense number") on the "Early History of America ?" Where are all the " Pamphlets and other works that were printed in New England, relating to its history?" The only scarce book we could find of New England history is lot 2039, Backus, improperly printed Barkus. In the collection relating especially to Rhode Island, the rare books we had hoped to find are "conspicuous by their absence." We look in vain for Callender, Coddington, Cotton and Gordon, and for the works of the great founder of the State, Roger Williams. In the R. I. Historical collections, some of these are reprinted, but they cannot be called rare in this shape. of American Though the collection poetry is unusually large, it does not contain the greatest rarities in this department. Not one of the editions of Anne Bradstreet's poems is described, and many rare books mentioned in Kettell's list are not included. Now that the sale is over, we are gratified to know that nearly all the American Poetry goes to an already large collection, which promises to become a really fine one. are others The classification is rather puzzling, e. g., under the head of Pamphlets, we find seven or eight relating to Washington. On page 506, in the alphabetical arrangement, there on the same subject. Lots 5157 and 6541 are ingeniously catalogued to look like different books, but they are the same. Lots 5161 and 5162, catalogued as two distinct pamphlets, are but one, by two authors. The notes on the books are generally extracted from Mr. Greene's MS. memoranda inserted in the volumes. Some of them are amusing, others clumsy, a few instructive, but many erroneous. In almost every instance where a book is said to Concerning lot 4196, Mrs. Killigrew's Poems, Mr. Waldron, a poor authority, is quoted as saying, "I never saw another copy." The best commentary on this alleged scarcity is the fact that Lowndes quotes it at from two to five shillings. This very catalogue, in the next number, offers another copy, and prints some amorous lines, written on one of its leaves by a cotemporary hand. Lot 920, is enhanced with an original criticism on Col. Humhprey's person and poems. He is called "A clumsy, uncouth looking man, from the west end of Connecticut," and his book, "No Great Things." Lot 1146, Mather's Psalterium Americanum, is described as "a most rare book, not mentioned in Rich's catalogues." It was no part of Mr. Rich's plan to include such publications. An extensive note follows lot 1850, but it is incorrect in several particulars. Some things are "strangely mixed." In the Poetry, following Griswold's Female Poets of America, is a copy of the Statement of his Relations with Charlotte Myers-anything but poetical we imagine. One of the most curious books in the collection, is lot 504, a series of Poems, by the Rev. William Cook, printed at Salem, written in a most villainous verse, printed on poor paper, and illustrated with barbarous wood-cuts done by the author, who was his own printer and publisher. We quote some of the rare and more curious books, and the prices at which they sold: 1278, Niles (S). A brief and plain essay on God's wonder-working Providence in the reduction of Louisburg, etc. New London, 1747. $12.00 1470, Rejected Addresses. 13.00. The value consisted in an inserted plate of the interior of the Park Theater. 1478, Lynch's Rhode Island Book. 10.00. A second copy sold for 8.00. As many dimes would have bought the book a few years ago. 1562, Sewall's Poems. $5.25. Improperly characterized as "one of the most rare of all the books of American Poetry." 1570. Shepards Pebbles from Castalia. 60c. 1401, The Poem, etc. Boston, 1772. $8.00 4701, Monroe's View of the Conduct of the Executive. Title printed in full with a long note on its very great rarity." Socts. 5670, John Rhodes' Surprising Adventures. $4.50. A badly stained copy. 5890. Shakespeare's Plays-Chalmers Ed., 9 vols., sold for $58.80, far beyond its value. 1894, Wigglesworth's Day of Doom. Boston, 1715. $22.50. Perhaps the scarcest book in the library. 1949, The American Traveller. Described in the catalogue as in two volumes 4to, but in fact, only a 4to pamphlet of 122 pages, with a copy of Knox's Journal, 2 vols., 4to an important and valuable book, bound up with it. $6.00. 2039, Backus' New England, 3 vols, 8vo, $75.00. 2261, Book of Mormon, First Edition, Palmyra, 1830. $15.00. This edition differs from the succeeding ones, and has been suppressed. 2438, Memoir of Cabot. Catalogue Portrait has been torn out"- portrait does not belong to the book. $2.75. says 2569, Chaucer. Folio, 1687. Black Letter, $17.50. 2856, Daniel's Certain Small Poems. London, 1603-05. $15.00. the 3187, Evans' Old Ballads. 4 vols, Lond., 1777. Incorrectly called "original" edition. The next lot, catalogued as "vols. 1 and 2 of the same," is the original edition, and is complete. 4084, James Marion, $17.00. The entire sale summed up less than $8,000. As an illustration of want of economy in cataloguing, over two thousand lots sold for less than the cost of printing. We can not better close this notice than with a little reminiscence of John Keese. He was selling a collection of Poems, and had in his hand a copy of Poems by Miss Jones, of the audience asked when one who library of the Marquis of Hastings, £120. Cambridge, (Massachusetts), 1685-80. EXCESSIVELY RARE. COLLATION: Title and dedication to the Hon. Robert Boyle, 2 leaves; Old Testament, A to ppppp 2 in fours, making 426 leaves; New Testament, including title, signatures A to Kk 2, 130 leaves; the Psalms in metre, Kk 3 to Yy 4, 53 leaves; I leaf of Annotations, and a final blank leaf. No other copy has occurred for sale for nearly seven years. The last which turned up in London, was a Duplicate of the Bodleian Library; it was sold by B. Q to America, where it has since been disposed of by auction, fetching nearly 2000 dollars. The present is a matchless copy. In the collation no mention is made of the leaf giving the names of the Books of the Old and New Testaments, and this would appear to be wanting. The whole note is calculated to deceive. It is the second and not the first edition as is implied in the last part of the note, and any one not knowing the difference would be easily misled. It is true that "the last which turned up in London, was a Duplicate of (sic) the Bodleian Library" and "B. 2," may have "sold it to (sic) America," but it was sent hither (in 1861) by Mr. Stevens of London, who repeatedly offered it to American collectors for 100 guineas. It was finally purchased by Mr. Bruce, in whose collection it was lately sold, but instead of "fetching nearly 2000 dollars," brought exactly 1130 dollars, only a little over half the sum quoted. For a copy of the first edition, £120 would be a cheap price. See an account of the Bruce sale in No. 1 of the Bibliopolist. FORTHCOMING SALES. The Sale of Augustin Fischer's collection of Mexican books, announced to take place in May, has been postponed to June. As we have before stated it will, in some respects, surpass the Maximilian Library which it very much resembles. In addition to the large number of early Mexican imprints and the Spanish and other works on Mexico, there are many English works on America, including some rare books printed in America. The collection also contains many books in the department of general literature. Catalogues may be seen at our address. Leavitt, Strebeigh & Co. will sell, in May, a collection of Americana containing many scarce pamphlets. They also announce a sale of Engravings containing nearly 700 Bartolozzi's-many of them proofs. |