Sale 2468 - Early Printed, Medical, Scientific & Travel Books, March 8, 2018

17 18 17 c (AUCTION CATALOGUE.) Blandford, George Spencer, fifth Duke of Marlborough, Marquis of. White Knights Library. Catalogue of that distinguished Library . . . which will be sold by Auction, by Mr. Evans. [4], 107, [1]; [4], [109]-220 pages. 2 parts in one volume, ruled in red throughout. 8vo, 237x151 mm, contemporary ½ calf, quite worn, front cover detached; contents generally clean. Bookplates of B. H. Beaufoy, A. L. McLaughlin, and Bernard Breslauer (sale, Christies, 22 March 2005, lot 266). London: (W. Bulmer and Co.), 1819 [600/900] 4703 lots. Prices and buyers entered in ink throughout. 18 c (AUCTION CATALOGUE.) Roxburghe, John Ker, Duke of. A Catalogue of the Library of the late John, Duke of Roxburghe . . . which will be sold by Auction . . . by Robert H.Evans,Bookseller,Pall-Mall. Extraneous contemporary stipple-engraved portrait of the Duke of Roxburghe bound in as frontispiece. xxiv, [2], 18, 284 [i. e., 283], [1]; iv, 20, [2]; 73 pages, including the preface in both versions, supplement, and printed price list. Prices and buyers also entered throughout in ink in small neat contemporary hand. 4 parts in one volume. 8vo, 230x143 mm, contemporary red straight-grain morocco attractively gilt, spine darkened, joints rubbed; portrait heavily foxed, offsetting onto title, other foxing mostly confined to the preliminaries. Contemporary owner’s handwritten obituary of the Duke on front flyleaf. London:W. Bulmer and Co., 1812 [500/750] 10,121 lots. “A new era in British book-collecting may be said to start with the Roxburghe sale . . . John, third Duke of Roxburghe (1740-1804) . . . built a handsome and extensive library . . . mainly devoted to incunabula, French chivalry-romances, early English and Italian literature, Shakespeare and the drama”—De Ricci, page 71.