A Catalogue of the Splendid and Valuable Library of the Rev. Thodore Williams

BIBLIOGRAPHY, the HUTH / Harmsworth / Abbey copy. - STEWART, WHEATLEY and ADLARD Auctioneers.

A Catalogue of the Splendid and Valuable Library of the Rev. Thodore Williams: containing a most extraordinary collection of early biblical and theological manuscripts; books printed on vellum, from the Aldine, Junta, and other celebrated presses; the best editions of the classics, principally on large paper ... belle lettres, and history, of the most select description. Which will be sold by auction by Messrs. Stewart, Wheatley, and Adlard, at their Great Room, 191, Piccadilly... [London: J. and C. Adlard, printers, 1827]. [bound with:] Books Omitted belonging to the Rev. Theodore Williams Library. [No place: 1827]

2 parts in one volume, octavo. Text listing 1948 lots in the main catalogue and a further 53 in the supplement, manuscript pricing and buyer's names throughout.

Contents condition: light toning, otherwise excellent.

Contemporary half calf over marbled paper-covered boards, spine gilt, marbled endpapers, top edges gilt the others uncut

Condition of binding: scuffed, joints splitting.

Provenance: Henry Huth (armorial book label, June 1920 sale, lot 8352); Sir R. Leicester Harmsworth (Oct. 1947 sale, lot 3729, noted by buyer); Maj. John Roland Abbey (inscription and book label).

A provenance-rich copy of the Rev. Williams sale catalogue: Seymour de Ricci noted that the nearly all of "the handsome books and manuscripts" in the library "were bound in blue or green morocco [by Charles Lewis, and others] with the collector's crest ... Among the manuscripts were the Gospels of Mathilda of Tuscany [lot 749], which subsequently belonged to Sir Thomas Phillipps and are now in the Pierpont Morgan library" (English Collectors, pp.98-9). Williams also owned "Bishop Gundalf's celebrated Bible [lot 355] ... now in the H.E. Huntington Library" (ibid. p.122).

Ref.: 17.056c