Catalogue Des Livres.
Liège, S. Dauvrain 1785.
8vo (205 x 132 mm.). [vi], 371p.
19th-century polished tan calf-backed marbled boards (rubbed, base of spine more so), gilt spine and gilt-lettered morocco title label, outer edges uncut.
ENTIRELY PRICED AND PARTIALLY NAMED. This copy records over fifty buyers at the sale of the wealthy Liège canon, art collector and bibliophile. Some of the most active buyers (collectors and dealers) include Preston, Méon, Laruelle, Renoz, Lemaire, De Gisels l’aîné, Lixon (the auctioneer), Dauvrain (the printer) and Saroléa’s heirs. The annotator also noted combined lots, defective books and copy specific information (such as silver clasps on Plantin missals). On the last leaf he records the sale of Saroléa’s bookcases, book catalogs and prints and the prices they realized.
Lot for lot, this auction catalog includes the most detailed bibliographic information I have encountered in a pre-1800 sale — full titles, imprints, formats, paginations, number of columns per page, illustrations, contents lists…. For example, lots 673 and 674, both 18th-century legal compilations, consume twelve pages. Throughout, anonymous works are attributed to an author, and banned books are marked with an asterisk. This exhaustive cataloging was the work of Belgian theologian, historian, Hebrew scholar and bibliographer J.-N. Paquot (1722-1803), who was Liège University librarian. The only detail he regularly omitted is the binding.
In very good condition (some light foxing), many pinholes preserved, 19th-century acquisition note dated 1846 and five-line bibliographic note on Paquot and Saroléa.
¶Laumont-Maréchal, “Recherches sur Jean-Mathieu de Saroléa, sa fortune, sa bibliothèque” in Annuaire d’histoire liégeoise XIV (1973) 129-55; Theux de Montjardin, Bibliographie liégeoise 693.
Price: $4,600.00