Thirty-one secondhand booksellers' catalogues (one a duplicate).

all octavo, in worn nineteenth-century binding, with front hinge loose, lacking spine. New endpapers. All items good, on aged paper with occasional foxing. An invaluable collection, providing a snapshot of secondhand bookselling in provincial Victorian England within an extremely short timescale. Several of the booksellers are not represented in the British Library collection, and others are only represented by catalogues of a later date. Of note are the two catalogues published by Sotheran's Manchester arm, the existence of which is not mentioned in Andrew Block's 'Short History' (1933). The tens of thousands of items listed include an 'early subscribers' copy' of Audubon's 'Birds of America' (1840-44) offered by Charles Lowe of Birmingham (catalogue 54, p.3) at £30 ('The later reprints are marked in London catalogues at a much higher price.') and '[a] faultless copy' of the Kilmarnock edition of Burns's poems (1786), bound by F. Bedford 'in the style of Roger Payne', and containing a letter from Burns to Captain Hamilton of Dumfries, offered by Kerr & Richardson of Glasgow at £100. The THIRTY-ONE items consist of: ONE catalogue of Bickers and Son, 1 Leicester Square, London, W.C.: no.18 (1882), 20pp. ONE catalogue of Alfred Cooper, 234 & 236 King Street, Hammersmith, [London]: no.19 (10 October 1882), 16pp. TWO catalogues of William Downing, at the sign of Chaucer's Head, 74 New Street, Birmingham: no.145 (December 1882), 24pp; 'Extra Catalogue, Twenty-five' (undated), 8pp. ONE catalogue of Thomas Gladwell, 101 & 103 Goswell Road, London, E.C.: no.14 (1882), 18pp. ONE catalogue of William George, 26 Park Street, Bristol: no.100 (undated), 24pp. FOUR catalogues [with one duplicate] Edward Howell, Church Street, Liverpool: part I (1881), ii + 42pp.; part VII (September 1881), ii + 42pp. ('This List includes purchases from the Libraries of Denis F. MacCarthy, Esq. S. A. Hart, R.A., J. P. Knight, R.A., William Bulmer, the eminent Printer of of [sic] the grand books of Bewick, Dibdin, &c., &c., &c.'); part XII (March 1882), 38pp. (red wraps); part XVII (August 1882), ii + 34pp. ('Includes purchases from the Libraries of the Duke of Hamilton, Wm. Beckford, Esq., Dante G. Rossetti, and many others.') ONE catalogue of Kerr & Richardson, 89 Queen Street, Glasgow: (undated), 54pp. (blue paper). FOUR catalogues of Charles Lowe of Broad Street Corner, near the Town Hall, Birmingham: no.54 (1880-1), 16pp.; no.63 (1881), 24pp. ('The Largest Stock of Books in the Midland Counties.'); no.82 (1882), 16pp.; no.83 (1882), 28pp. ONE catalogue of U[riah]. Maggs, 159 Church Street, Paddington Green, London, W.: no.43 (October-November 1882), 48pp. ONE catalogue of James Mathews, 33 & 34 Upper Arcade & 42 Union Street, Bristol: B (1882), 16pp. ONE catalogue of J. Neale, 5 Edgware Road, W. (near the Marble Arch.): undated, 24pp. TWO catalogues of Parry & Hales: undated (from 46 Mount Pleasant, Liverpool), 4pp.; no.6 (1882, from the "Exchange" Book Store, 67 Dale Street, Liverpool), 16pp. ONE catalogue of William Paterson, 67 Princes Street, Edinburgh: no.161 (1882), 32pp. TWO catalogues of Reeves & Turner, 196 Strand, London, W.C.: no.331 (10 November 1882), 96pp; no.332 (December 1882), pp.40. TWO catalogues of James Roche, 1 Southampton Row, Holborn, W.C.: no. XXVII (1882), 42pp; no.XXVIII (1882), 40pp. ONE catalogue of Henry Sotheran & Co, 136 Strand, London: no.15 (1882), 80pp. (blue wraps). TWO catalogues of Henry Sotheran & Co. (late Thomas Hayes), 49 Cross Street, Manchester: no.10, new series (1882), 64pp + 4pp prospectus for Stephen's edition of Samuel Richardson (grey wraps); no.11, new series (1882), 44pp. (grey wraps). TWO catalogues of Henry Young, 12 South Castle Street, Liverpool: part CXI (October 1876), 36pp; part CIX (29 May 1876), 32pp.