xxxvii. Manchester. Albert Sutton, 43 Bridge Street. Catalogue No. 219 of Ancient and Modern Books, containing the First Portion of a selection from the library of the late Ven. Edward Barber, M.A., Archdeacon and Canon Residentiary of Chester, and other recent purchases, 863 items. Joseph Glanville's The Vanity of Dogmatizing, 1661 (unknown to Lowndes) is priced 10/6, and Granger's Wonderful Museum and Extraordinary Magazine, ine, 6 vols., 1803, £2 7s. 6d. Tunbridge Wells. P. M. Barnard, M.A., 10 Dudley Road. Catalogue No. 96, Bibliography, Facsimiles of MSS., Books of Autographs, Reference Books, Periodicals, etc.; 583 items. A Set of the Woolley Photographs of Fifteenth Century Types is priced £30. Also, Salvage Catalogue of Miscellaneous Books, List C, 452 items. Wrexham. Frank Crowe, Bank Street. Catalogue No. 66, of English and Welsh Books, with an Addenda of Books on Architecture, 399 items. Also, Catalogue No. 67: 679 items, including the scarce set of Picturesque Views in North Wales, 20 coloured plates, 1822, £2 2s. Od. ABROAD Amsterdam, Holland. R. W. P. De Vries, Singel 146. Bulletin de Livres Anciens et Modernes, No. XXI.; 1,300 items, under Afrique, Almanachs Généalogiques, Amérique, Asie, Atlas. Beaux-Arts, Bibles, Costume, Emblémes, Entrées et Funérailles, Gravure sur Bois, Histoire Naturelle, Impressions des XVe et XVIe Siècles, Indes Orientales, Japon et Chine, Livres Français Illustrés du XVIII. Siècle, Marine, Médecine, Musées et Galéries, Occultisme, Psautiers, Reliures, Voyages, etc. Florence, Italy. Otto Lange, Via de' Serragli 132. Catalogue No. 35; Droit International; Ouvrages Modernes et d'Occasion; 453 items. Also, Catalogue No. 36; One Thousand Books on America, selected from a large stock of Americana, arranged under Periodicals, Bibliography, Archæology, American Indians, Costumes, Discovery, Americana published before 1700, History of United States from 1701 to 1801, War of Independence, The Civil War, Slavery, History of the 19th Century, Franklin, Lincoln, Washington, Immigration, U.S. Local History, Canada, Arctic Regions, Voyages in U.S. and Canada, Central and South America, Cartography. Mexico City, Mexico. W. W. Blake, Avenida 16 de Septiembre 13. Blake's Bulletin: Monthly List of Books, Nos. 23-24, old and modern editions, mostly relating to Mexico and the United States. 363 items. New York City, U.S.A. C. Gerhardt & Co., Lexington Book Shop, 120 East 59th Street. Catalogue No. 37 of First Editions of English and American Authors, with a few other Fine Books, 678 items, including works by Mrs. Browning, Miss Burney, C. L. Dodgson, Dickens, W. S. Gilbert, Bret Harte, Milton, Lamb, Landor, Shelley, Surtees, Isaac Walton, Leigh Hunt, George Moore, Walter Pater, G. B. Shaw, Stevenson, Swinburne, Thackeray, and others, with a few Association Volumes. Charles F. Heartman, 36 Lexington Avenue. Catalogue Nos. 6-7, Rare Americana, arranged in three alphabets, 1,012 items including Acosta's De Naturi Novi Orbis, 1596; American Military Pocket Atlas, 1776; Bishope's New England Judged, 1703; Hennepin, Beschryving van Louisiana, etc., 1688; Hulsius, Voyages to America, the East Indies, and Arctic Regions, 19 Parts, 1612-40; and other rare works. * Catalogues veceived since going to press will be noticed in the next Part. COLLECTORS' COLUMN (Wants) Treen (R.) 34 Cecil Road, Muswell Hill, London, Ν. Arundel Society's Coloured Prints, Books, etc., particularly annual lists of subscribers, reports of Council Meetings, descriptive notices of prints, and any papers, however unimportant, issued by the Society. Second-hand book catalogues desired. If you are contemplating having a Catalogue printed why not send your copy and particulars to HARDING & CURTIS, Printers of "Book-Auction Records" Ltd., EVERY CATALOGUE PRINTED FROM NEW TYPE. PROOFS ARE CAREFULLY READ BY EXPERIENCED READERS, THEREFORE NEED LITTLE CORRECTION, THUS SAVING MUCH TIME AND TROUBLE. WE WILL SUPPLY, CARRIAGE PAID, Pages, Demy 8vo. size 1000 Catalogues (16) £4 12s. 6d. 17/6 for each additional 1000. 1000 Covers, 4 pages printed, £1 7s. 6d. 7/6 for each additional 1000. SPECIMEN CATALOGUES ON REQUEST. Harding & Curtis, Ltd., Booksellers' Bath Telephone 211 THE BIBLIOGRAPHY OF BLACKBURN T must be candidly admitted at the outset that Blackburn's past or present connection with bibliography is not a subject one can get enthusiastic over, neither in the matter of the garnering of book rarities in the Free Library nor in the circulation of books through the usual channels; it is only when one comes to speak of the writing of books by the borough's inhabitants that the subject improves somewhat. or The absence of anything outside the commonplace in the Free Library's accumulation may easily be traced to the indifference or lack of taste on the part of the Blackburn public; it certainly cannot be the fault of the intelligent and energetic librarian. And the absence of really class dealers in books, new tiquarian, is undoubtedly due to the fact that the Blackburn public is not literary. It may safely be said that there are not a dozen private libraries in the place which contain a thousand good books each; and it must be remembered that the population of the town is 150,000, included in which are several hundred successful professional men, quite as many successful tradesmen, and a fair sprinkling of millionaire and semi-millionaire cotton lords and brewers. The plutocrats have a weakness for big motor-cars, expensive mechanical pianoplayers, and third-rate works of art; the professional and business men slavishly imitate "their betters," as far as funds will permit. In all probability it is less than one per cent, of the remaining 149,000 which constitutes the readers and book-buyers. The fathers and grandfathers of the present generation were apparently as unliterary, for during the past fifty years only two good private collections have been dispersed locally; one was the library of Dr. Skaife, sold at Sotheby's during five days in February, 1883, and the other that of a man of good taste who embezzled the funds of a Local Board of a neighbourhing township in order to keep pace with his bibliomania. Under these regrettable circumstances it is not surprising that Blackburn has never had any printer of note, for with the exception of one firm not one of them ever tackled anything more ambitious than the usual local parson's sermon d'occasione, running to eight or sixteen pages, or the usual volume of local rhymes. The exception was Hemingway, who in 1799 produced a huge History of England, and in the same year issued a leviathan copy of Hurd's " Universal History of the Religious Rites, Ceremonies, and Customs of the Whole World" (936 double-column pages). The only other mammoth production by Hemingway-now in partnership with Nuttall, who set up a printing press locally in 1786, was the first edition of Dr. Whitaker's "History of Whalley," 1801, a quarto of over 400 pages and a great many typographical errors. In the Seventies' the firm of Tiplady & Son printed very decently some of the late Dr. Grosart's editings, and more recently Messrs. Toulmin ("Times" office) have turned out in creditable style Abram's " History of Blackburn," Hull's" Poets and Poetry of Blackburn," and many other important local works. The Free Libraries Act of 1850 came into being a year before the incorporation of Blackburn as a borough, and the two-year-old Town Council decided, on some date unknown in August, 1853, to adopt the Act; the town was the seventh in England to do so, the population at this time being 50,000. On the 15th of the following month a meeting of ratepayers, 432 strong, confirmed the resolution of the Council, all but the odd two; but a period of no less than six years elapsed before the adoption matured, and then the use of an upper room in the Town Hall was obtained for the housing of the one thousand volumes either promised, presented, or actually purchased. This was in October, 1859, by which time the population had jumped to over 60,000. Of the gift volumes James Pilkington, M.P., contributed a complete set to date of Hansard's Parliamentary Debates (going back to A.D. 1072) and invested £100 in order that the interest therefrom should defray the cost of future issues. Alderman Baynes obtained from the Commissioners of Patents a full series of their publications, and himself gave the sum of £200 to cover the cost of cases for Specifications (there is a Specification for A.D. 1617, when the first patent was granted). Alderman Cunningham |