86
NOTES AND QUERIES. do* s. v. FEB. 3, 1900.
'Ushers' Circular, for 13 May, 1905, pp. 540-41.
He registered a complaint against incorrect
and incomplete descriptions of books. It is
needless to say that there are some excellent
sale- catalogues issued by certain English
book-dealers ; but it is, in my opinion,
equally obvious that in some quarters there
is room for improvement. I believe that
there are many enterprising dealers who
would add largely to their sales by a logical
arrangement of their catalogues. My own
preference is for the Dewey decimal system
of classification. If this be adopted, let the
first page inside of cover be devoted to a
combined key and table of contents. The
catalogue proper will follow, arranged in
accordance with the decimal system, each
subject by itself in alphabetic order by
authors' surnames. If the list conclude with
a good author -index in one alphabet, so
much the better. This need add very little
to the expense. I venture to think that the
above plan (which involves nothing compli-
cated) would so materially increase the ac-
cessibility, and therefore the usefulness, of
the catalogues, that the clientele of dealers
who issue them would be considerably aug-
mented. This is a busy world, and one has
not the time to wade through the average
author-catalogue, if one happens to be inter-
ested in certain subjects.
EUGENE F. McPiKE. Chicago.
JOSEPH NOLLEKENS'S LIBRARY. J. T. Smith in ^ his ' Nollekens and his Times ' (1895 edition) says :
"Mr. Nollekens's prints, drawings, and books of prints, were sold by Mr. Evans, in Pall Mall, on Thursday, December 4, 1823. They principally con- sisted of nearly the entire works of Nicolas Poussin ; a fine collection of the engravings after +Sir Joshua Reynolds's pictures ; several sketch- books filled by Mr. Nollekens when at Rome ; and numerous drawings also by him, made upon the backs of letters."
This date is incorrect : the sale took place on Thursday, 18 December, and following day. The biographer is also at fault in describing the lots. A copy of the catalogue, filled in by Mr. Arch of Cornhill, is before me, but 1 cannot find that any of these interesting drawings and engravings were offered. There were sketch-books and a very large number of original drawings by Cipriani, of which Smith secured lot 331, " Thirty - four Academy studies in red and black chalk,' for 2l. 10s. Lots 307-19 included drawings and prints by Malton, Sir William Chambers and Cozens. Lot 284 was "Collection o inscriptions upon monuments and unde
usts executed by Joseph Nollekens, Esq.,
manuscript" ; but nothing else of his occurs,
and the name of Sir Joshua Reynolds is not
mentioned. It is perhaps worth noting that
ome of the legatees secured parcels of prints
,nd books.
There must be an explanation for these errors in the biography, and it is possible Smith had in view some of the "studio ittings" sold by Christie on Thursday, 3 July, 1823, at Mortimer Street, and on the wo following days in Pall Mall (p. 395).
ALECK ABRAHAMS. 39, Hillmarton Road.
LONG SPEECHES AN INFLICTION. Much merriment lias been caused by the discovery that in the Egyptian ' Book of the Dead ' an ancient declared he had "not inflicted long _ectures"on his hearers. But this is curiously matched by a plea for his soul uttered by Hugh Grove (Loyalist) at his execution, 16 May, 1665 (vol. iii., Thurloe's Collections) : "Good people, I was never guilty of much rhetorick, nor ever loved long speeches in my life, therefore you cannot expect either of them at my death. All I desire is your hearty prayers for my soul," &c.
In view of the Egyptian discovery, this seems a very close second for England.
W. YOUNG.
WILLIAM BLAKE. In 8 th S. xi. 302 and 9 th S. i. 454 I stated that the engravings in Salzmann's 'Gymnastics' were wrongly attributed to this artist and engraver.
In consequence of the observations about this book in my bibliography ' Swimming,' published in 1904 (p. 219), MR. THOMAS WINDSOR showed (10 th S. ii. 383) that the 'Gymnastics' was wrongly attributed by the translator to Salzmann, and that the real author of the original German book was Guts Muths.
I have just come across another book in which the pictures are wrongly attributed to Blake. In Bohn's 'Lowndes,' part v. p. 1300, the illustrations to Lamb's 'Tales from Shake- speare,' fourth edition, 1822, are said to be by William Blake. The engravings to this and the three previous editions, according to the British Museum Catalogue, are by W. Mulready, afterwards R A. The style seems to show that they are not by Blake, though there is every probability that he engraved Mulready 's drawings, which would be very much Blaked in the process.
KALPH THOMAS.
COLOUR TRANSITION. It may be note- worthy that both in Old Cymric (or Welsh) and Irish, as well as in other Celtic languages,
