10 s. vm. OCT. 5, 1907.] NOTES AND QUERIES.
267
thecss Clarissimi Doctissimique Viri Lazari
Seaman, S. T. D. Quorum Auctio habebitur
Londini in sedibus Defunct! in Area et Viculo
Warwicensi, Octobris ultimo. Cura Gulielmi
Cooper, Bibliopolse. 1676. 4to, pp. 137."
Dr. Seaman's residence was in Warwick
Court, in Warwick Lane. In the Preface to
the Reader, the auctioneer states,
" It hath not been usual here in England to make Sale of Books by way of Auction, or who will give most for them ; but it having been practised in other countries to the advantage both of buyers and sellers, it was therefore conceived (for the encouragement of learning) to publish the sale of these books this manner of way ; and it is hoped that this will not be unacceptable to scholars ; and therefore we thought it convenient to give an Advertisement con- cerning the manner of proceeding therein." Many other particulars relating to the earliest book auctions in England will be found at 2 S. xi. 463 ; 5 S. xii. 95, 211, 411 ; 6 S. ii. 297, 417 ; 9 S. vi. 86, 156.
It was nearly a century after the dispersal of Dr. Seaman's library when the first sale- room in this country devoted exclusively to books, manuscripts, and prints was founded by Mr. Samuel Baker at York Street, Covent Garden, in 1774. About the same time he took George Leigh into partnership, and from 1775 to 1777 the firm was styled S. Baker & G. Leigh. After Baker's death in 1778 Leigh carried on the business alone ; but from 1780 to 1800 John Sotheby, Baker's nephew, was associated with Leigh, the firm being known as Leigh & Sotheby, In 1800 John Sotheby's nephew Samuel joined it, and until the death of Leigh in 1815 the firm carried on their business at 145, Strand. John Sotheby died in 1807, the year in which Hodgson's was founded ; and on Leigh's death, eight years later, Samuel continued the business by himself, moving to 3, Waterloo Street (now named Wellington Street), Strand, about 1817. Soon afterwards he took his son Leigh into partnership, and in 1826 Sotheby & Son printed a catalogue of the collections sold by Baker, Leigh, and Sotheby from 1724 to 1826. A set of the original catalogues, with the purchasers' names and prices, is in the British Museum. Samuel Sotheby con- ducted the dispersal of many famous libraries. He retired in 1827, and died at Chelsea on the 4th of January, 1842, in his seventy-first year. An obituary notice of Mr. Edward Grose Hodge, who had succeeded to the business on the death of Mr. John Wilkinson, appeared in The Athenaeum of the 1st of June of this year. The business is now under the entire control of his son, Mr. Frank Hodge, and is, as is
well known, styled Sotheby, Wilkinson &
Hodge.
It is pleasing to note the compliment to Sotheby's paid by Mr. Sidney Hodgson in his interview with the representative of The Daily Telegraph : "In recent years the whole of the book-auctioneering trade has been confined to three or four London houses, of which, as every one knows, Messrs. Sotheby are at the head." Mr. Hodgson is keen in his search for rarities, and among his finds was a book in a library in York- shire which had been regarded as of no value, but fetched 470Z.
The conditions of sale were virtually the same in 1807 as they are now, and may be said to be identical with those originally adopted by the earliest book-auctioneers at the end of the seventeenth century. For the first few years in Hodgson's history the sales usually took place at eleven in the morning or half-past five in the evening, whereas one o'clock is now the invariable rule. In accordance with the more leisurely methods of the period, not more than about 150 lots were offered on each occasion in the earlier catalogues a number which has increased latterly to an average of 330. The sales now seldom occupy more than two hours and a half, though the number of buyers has, of course, largely increased, averaging nearly one hundred at each sale.
From a legal point of view the sale of the library of the College of Advocates was perhaps the most remarkable. Messrs. Hodgson began it on the 22nd of April, 1861, and it was continued during the seven following days, 2,456 lots being sold. These included an unusually extensive collection of the works of well-known writers, both English and foreign, on civil, canon, and ecclesiastical law from the earliest time, as well as many manuscripts of great interest.
JOHN C. FBANCIS. (To be concluded.)
JOSEPH KNIGHT ON THE LAUBEATESHIP. In The Idler of April, 1895 (vol. vii. p. 407), is an opinion of our late Editor as to who should be appointed Poet Laureate. Cover- ing about a page, it appears among the replies (given by many men and women disting- guished in literature) to the question, " Who shall be Laureate ? " With the letterpress is a small woodcut, copied apparently from the photograph (cetat. 55) which was repro- duced in ' N. & Q.' of 29 June last.
The opinion was in favour of Mr. Swin- burne, or, failing him, abolition of the post. ROBERT PIEBPOINT.
