AUCTION CATALOGUE - HEBER, Richard.

£5,000 · Offered by Peter Harrington · No longer available

Bibliotheca Heberiana, Catalogue of the Library of the late Richard Heber, Esq. First editions of the complete set. There were 16 sales in total, including one in Ghent in 1835 and two in Paris in 1836.Heber (1773-1833) began collecting in his youth, starting with classical works in his undergraduate years before expanding into poetical and dramatical English literature, and later into continental works. For the first three decades of the 19th century, he was known to purchase books, sometimes whole libraries, at every London sale. De Ricci estimates the total number of volumes in Heber's library to have been between 200,000-300,000, split across various European residences. At the time of his passing, the antiquarian book market was in a decline and "the London sales produced £56,744, for books which had cost their late owner over £100,000" (De Ricci, p. 102). There were 16 sales in total, including one in Ghent in 1835 and two sales in Paris in 1836.Provenance: Edward Smith Stanley, 13th Earl of Derby (1775-1851), a politician and a naturalist who was president of the Linnean Society of London from 1828 to 1834 and of the Zoological Society of London for 20 years. His armorial bookplate is on the front pastedowns - The collection was later acquired by Donald (1909-1966) and Mary (1912-2003) Hyde, whose book label is present. Now housed at Harvard, the Hyde's library is revered as one of the largest private collections of 18th-century literature, containing the premier assem

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