[ Printed item. ] Catalogue of Books printed for Private Circulation. Collected by Bertram Dobell, and now described and annotated by him.

238 + [2]pp., 8vo. In green cloth binding with printed title on paper label on spine. In fair condition, on aged paper, in worn binding. Comprising fifteen parts of 16pp. each bound up by the author-publisher. The volume is still genuinely useful, containing a mass of information in the annotations to each entry, from Mrs Abdy's 'Poetry' in six volumes to William Young's 'A Journal of a Summer Excursion'. Pp.2-3 carry a long 'Introductory Note', the first paragraph of which reads: 'The idea of the present work first occurred to me as long ago as 1884, and the first part of it was issued in 1891. Afterwards it was continued, at such intervals as I could devote to it, over a long period of time. I need hardly say that it proved to be a laborious and time-devouring work, and one from which no pecuniary advantage could possibly be derived. Yet since it seemed to me to be a work which required doing, and which would be of some utility when done, I should have been willing to continue my labours upon it had not other literary projects, which seemed to have a greater claim upon my energies, withdrawn me from it.' Dobell explains that as 'the idea of printing a bare list of names and titles' had no attraction for him, he decided to give 'some notice of their contents and character'. He has only catalogued books which are, or have been, in his possession, and ends by stating that he has about two thousand privately-printed books in stock, 'and if any private purchaser or public institution cares to purchase the whole collection, I shall be willing to sell them for a very moderate sum'. Two pages of advertisement at rear. Scarce. For more on Dobell, see his Oxford DNB entry by Anthony Rota.