Printed Catalogues of French Book Auctions and Sales by Private Treaty 1643-1830 in the Library of the Grolier Club

Sale catalogues of French libraries from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries have long been regarded as a particularly valuable resource for scholars, bibliophiles, antiquarian booksellers, and librarians. Printed Catalogues of French Book Auctions and Sales by Private Treaty 1643-1830 in the Library of the Grolier Club documents in exhaustive detail the earliest and most interesting portion of the Grolier Club's renowned collection of French book auction catalogues, shedding new light on the twin phenomena of private collecting and the antiquarian book trade in France at the height of its political power and cultural influence, while revealing hitherto neglected physical aspects of this very interesting class of bibliography. Each of the 616 entries in the catalogue includes full title transcription, detailed collation, and number of lots, often followed by extensive comments on the circumstances of the sale, as well as the history and subsequent fate of the collection. Additional notes minutely describe the copies in the Grolier Club collection, which are unusually rich in contemporary annotations and largely in bindings of the period. Compiled by former Grolier Club curator Michael North, the catalogue includes a history of the French book sale collection at the Club by Director & Librarian Eric Holzenberg, as well as an "appreciation" of the collection by scholar and bibliophile Edmond L. Lincoln. Designed by Peter Rutledge Koch, and printed in an edition of 500 copies at the Stinehour Press.