[SMITH, Joseph (Consul).]
Bibliotheca Smithiana
[London], n.p., [1773]£7,500.00
Small 4to, pp. (viii), 84. Rare. Roman letter. Good, clean, wide-margined copy. Ornamental borders. Modern half calf, marbled boards by Brown of Dorchester. Old ink scribble in one blank upper corner, small marginal mark and hole. Inscribed ‘For Dr: Wilkinson.’ in contemporary ink hand at top of half title. Stamps and cancellation stamps of Trinity College Library, Cambridge (iii and p.84). Armorial bookplate of celebrated bibliographer Anthony Hobson inside front cover.
Consul Smith (1682-1770) was a renowned and prolific book collector, Canaletto’s patron, and British consul in Venice. After his first collection of manuscripts, incunabula and Aldines was bought almost wholesale by George III for £10,000 in 1765, Smith put together a second collection, the contents of which ‘closely resemble the first library but on a smaller scale’ (Morrison 1994). This library was sold after his death by Baker and Leigh over a period of 13 days starting on January 25th, 1773. The sale comprised 2099 lots. While Smith issued a number of substantial catalogues for his first collection (e.g. Catalogus librorum rarissimorum, [no year, but prior to 1755] Brunet I 1652, and the Bibliotheca Smithiana, Venice 1755, Brunet I 925), this catalogue of sale appears to be the best record of Smith’s second collection. Its sale fetched £2,245 s.6 (Bigmore and Wyman, p.375)
De Ricci, 54-55; ‘Records of a Bibliophile’ by Stuart Morrison in The Book Collector, Spring 1994.