This appendix contains details of the sales and several offers of the First Folio in the eighteenth century. Unless otherwise noted (eg, Lee, Census), the sources are auction and booksellers’ catalogues. The source catalogue can be traced, through its date, in Munby and Coral, which gives shelf-marks. Words and figures underlined in Table G are added in manuscript in the original printed catalogue.
Table G
Sales and Prices of the First Folio 1700-1799
00 1. Lee, Census, copy 8 8, the Major-General Frederick Edward Sotheby copy: ‘probably purchased by present owner’s ancestor, James Sotheby, c 1700, for £1 65. Condition [in 1902]: good; fly-leaf and another leaf supplied in facsimile.’ I have not located this copy.
2. ‘A Catalogue of the Library of the late Learned Dr. Oliphant, M.D. and member of Parliament for Scotland. . . . Which will begin to be Sold by Auction, on Monday the 12th of December, 1720, at Paul’s Coffeehouse the West-end of St. Paul’s Churchyard . . . by Thomas Ballard, Bookseller.’ Under ‘English Books in Folio’: Lot 290 ‘Shakspear’s Plays 1623’.
- - ...
3. ‘A Catalogue of the Libraries of Edward Dupper, Esq., Late Secretary to the Commissioners of Bankrupts: and of Mr. Cecil Clay, Both deceased . . . which will begin to be Sold Cheap (the Price mark’d in each Book) at Dan. Browne’s, at the Black-Swan without Temple-Bar, on Wednesday the 6th of February, 1733-4.’ Under ‘English History, Miscellanies, Voyages, Travels, Etc., Folio’: Item 146‘Shakespear’s Works, 1st Edit. 1623’. ^ ---
4. and 5. ‘A New Catalogue of Books . . . Catalogues (the Prices printed very cheap) to be had at A. Jackson’s Shop in Clare-Court, Drury-Lane, where the sale begins May 2d. 1740.’
Item 20 ‘ditto [following the Second Folio] 1st edit, wants Title. 155. [nd]’. Item 21 ‘dittoimperfect. 85 [nd]’.
“ ^ h i s is the first bookseller’s retail catalogue, as opix)sed to auction catalogue, in which I have found % a First Folio.
1748 6. Lee, in his Census Introduction (8), says that ‘In a London sale-catalogue of 1748, the earliest that has yet been found definitely to mention a First Folio, the volume was described as “a fine copy, very scarce”.*
1750
1756
7. Otness (73) cites a First Folio sale in 1750 for £10, but gives no source
8. ‘A Catalogue of the . . . Library of Martin Folkes, Esq. President of the Royal Society. . . Lately Deceased . . . will be sold by auction by Samuel B aker. . . To begin on Monday, February 2, 1756. [On the] Eighteenth Day’s Sale. Saturday, Feb. 21, 1756 [Under] Folio [Lot] 2307 Shakespeare’s Plays, 1623 3-3 Dr Monroe.’ Lee, Census, for copy 48, the Folkes volume, says, citing no source, ‘said to have been owned c 1730 by Lewis Theobald’. It was bought at the 1756 Folkes sale by George Steevens and is now in the John Rylands University of Manchester Library.
c. 1760 9. Lee, Census, copy 45 (now in the British Library): ‘Purchased c 1760 by Clayton Mordaunt Cracherode, apparently for £8 I&s. 6d. ’
c. 1760 10. Lee, Census, copy 64 (now at Queen’s College, Oxford): ‘acquired by David Garrick c 1760 of Thomas Payne, the London bookseller, for £I 16^. ’
1765 11. ‘A Catalogue o f . . , the Library of . . . Dr. Joseph Letheriand, Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, Lately deceased; Which will be sold by Auction, By Samuel Baker . . . March the 14th 1765, and to continue the Twenty-one following Evenings.’ ‘Eighteenth Day’s Sale, Tuesday, April 9, 1765.’ Under ‘Folio’: Lot 2886 ‘The same Book [after a Second Folio], 1st Edit. 4to. with Othello 1623 6/7/6 Bathoes [the purchaser].’ My interpretation is that ‘4to with Othello’ is parenthetical and that a Quarto Othello was sold along with the Folio. This is the first First Folio 1 have found in a catalogue which also offered the other three folios.
1765230 12. ‘A Catalogue of the Libraries Of the Honourable and Reverend Edward
Townshend, D.D. Dean of Norwich; And of the Honourable Horatio Townshend, Both lately Deceased . . . Which will be sold by Auction, by Samuel Baker . . . Monday, May the 13th, 1765, and to continue the four following days.’ (The sale also included books of Joseph Letherland-see previous entry.) ‘Third Day’s Sale, Wednesday, May 15, 1765.’ Under ‘Folio’: Lot 534 ‘Shakespear’s Works, first edit. 1623 5/10/- Moran [or ? Moxan. The purchaser’s name is crossed through].’
1770 13. ‘A Catalogue of very curious and valuable books . . . The whole will be daily selling till the 25th of March, 1770 . . . by Thomas Davies. ’ Under ‘English Books. Folio’: Item 161 ‘Shakespear’s Works, imperfect at the end, IL Is 1623.’
1772 14. Lee 1906, 20, says for his newly discovered copy number IV: ‘A note on the fly-leaf records that the volume was purchased in 1772 for five guineas.’ Otness (73) dtes a sale in 1770 for five guineas, but gives no source; I have assumed he was referring to this 1772 sale. This copy is now in the Dallas Public Library.
Lee, Census, Introduction, 8, says ‘In 1766, [tliree guineas] was realizedat the sale of the library cf the well-known author, David Mallet.’ I could find no Shakespeare Folio in the catalogue for Mallet’s sale, 10 March 1766, reproduced in Munby, 7. Lee was perhaps mistakenly referring to a lot added in MS after lot 745: ‘Shakespeare’s Plays Quarto’, which fetched three guineas.
1781
1781
15. ‘A Catalogue . . . of Books, Including the Elegant Library of George Andrews, Esq; of Wells, Deceased . . . which will be sold . . . this Day, July 1781 . . . by Thomas Payne and Son.’ On the title-page of the catalogue, among about seventy-five other volumes: ‘Shakespeare, 1st edit, fine copy’. Under ‘Miscellaneous Books, and Poetry, in English. Folio.’: Lot 254 ‘The same [after a Second Folio], first edit, a very fine copy, and very elegantly bound in russia, by R. Payne 1623.’
16. 7 September 1781. William Sheldon:‘Books and manuscripts. Christie & Ansell, sold on Sheldon’s premises, Weston near Long Compton in County Warwick. Book section, 27 August sale’ (Munby and Coral, 78). The ‘auctioneer’s-Heber-Phillipps—copy’ of the catalogue for this sale, lacking its title-page, in Cambridge University Library, has: ‘[lot] 523 Shakespeare’s first edition^ 1623. Milton’s Paradise Lost, and 1 more. £2/4/- Vans’. Lee, Census, copy 20, incorrectly says the copy was purchased by ‘Mr. King’. A letter from the University Library states: ‘I take the buyer’s name to be “Vang”; there is a note in the front of the book by Heber which suggests that this is probably Vandenberg, a London bookseller. There is not specific mention of the First Folio in Heber’s notes’. T h i s copy is now Folger 10.
1785 17. ‘A Catalogue of the valuable Library of Books, Of the late learned Samuel Johnson, Esq; LL.D. Deceased; which will be sold by Auction . . . by Mr. Christie. . . on Wednesday, February 16, 1785, and the three following days. ’ Lot 467 ‘Shakespeare’s comedies, histories and tragedies 1623’.“ ^
Nicolas Smith, Under-Librarian, Rare Books Department, Camkidge Universtiy Library, letter, 14 April 1998, enclosing a photocopy of the entry relating to the First Folio.
There are some anomalies concerning Johnson’s ownership of Folios. On the evidence of Geoige Steevens he definitely owned a First Folio: writing to Isaac Reed in 1790, he speaks of the leaves ‘blotted, greased, or soibbledon, by Dr Johnson’ in a First Folio he, Steevens, owned. (The rderence for this letter is given above in a footnote to the text.) Lee, Census, says (a) Johnson owned Lee 55 (p 28), now in the British Library, (b) Johnson owned another copy at his death’ (p 28), and (c) ‘positive traces are unfortunately lost of the [First Folio] sold at Dr. Johnson’s sale, in 1785’ (p 14). Regarding (a), a leaf in Lee 55, which has a manuscript note saying It belonged to Mr. Theobald. From him it devolved to Dr Johnson’, also has a manuscript note which says ‘This advertisement leaf belongs to the 2nd folio and has been tipped into this copy at some time’. Regarding (b) and (c), these references are presumably to the same copy. From the fwegkng one could conclude that Johnson did not own Lee 55 and that the copy owned at his death’ was the one sold in 1785. However, J D Fleeman, A Preliminary Handlist o f Copies o f Books Associated with Dr. Samuel Johnson, Oxford Bibliographical Society Occasional Publication, 17 (1984), lists only one Folio—a Second (item 245). His notes for this Second Folio include: ‘Christie’s (Johnson), 16 Feb. 1785, 467 (“1623”)’. The ‘1623’ presumably indicates it is misdated in the catalogue. Finally, Fleeman does not list the Third Folio, lot 353, in the
1786 I 18. ‘A Catalogue of the Library of John Henderson, Esq; (Late of Covent I Garden Theatre,) Deceased . . . which will be sold by T. and J, Egerton,
I Booksellers, At their Room, in Scotland Yard . . . on Monday, the 20th of
I February, 1786 and the Five following days.’ ‘Sixth Day, Saturday, Feb. 25,
I 1786. [Lot] 970 Shakespeare (Will.) Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies,
i published according to the true Original Copies, imperf. folio, printed for J . j [sic] Jaggard and E. Blount 1623 19/-.’
1787 I 19. ‘A Catalogue of the Library of Richard Wright, M.D., Fellow of the Royal
I Society, (Deceased.). . . which will be sold by Auction by T. and J. Egerton,
I Booksellers; at their room, in Scotland Y ard. . . On Monday, April 23d, 1787; j and the Eleven following Days.’ The heading before the eighth day’s sale is j ‘The English Theatre’. ‘Ninth Day. Wednesday, May 2d. . . . [lot] 1960 Mr. j William Shakespeare’s Comedies, Histories and Tragedies, first folio edition, j bound in Russia leather with gilt leaves 1623 10/0/-.’
1790 I 20. ‘A Catalogue of the Genuine Library of John Watson Reed, Esq. F.S.A.
I Late of Ely-Place, deceased . . . which will be sold by auction by J. Egerton, j Bookseller, at the Room in Scotland Yard on Monday March 1st, 1790, And the I following Day.’ Under ‘Folio’: ‘[Lot] 400 Shakespeare’s Works, published j by Heminge and Condell, first edition, a very fine Copy, bound in Morocco,
I with gilt leaves 1623.’ This is Lee 21, now at the Huntington. At the 1790
I sale, ‘it was purchased by the great book-collector, the third Duke of
I Roxburghe, for £35 145.’ (Lee, Census for copy 21).
1790 I 21. In the 5 October 1790 letter to Isaac Reed, referred to at ‘1765?’ above,
I George Steevens wrote: ‘I am in treaty with Mr Edwards of Pall-mall for a first
j Folio, which he is soon to receive. Provided it answers his description, he
I thinks he shall do me a favour by letting me have it at the small charge of twenty
I guineas. ’
1790? I 22. ‘A Catalogue of Books . . . now [1790?] selling . . . by Henry Chapman, i Bookseller, No. 65, Chandois-Street, Covent Garden.’ Under ‘Miscellaneous, I Poetry, and Translations. Folio.’: ‘[Item] 873 Shakespeare’s Plays, the first
I edit, bound in 2 vols, imperfect, lL 5 s [nd]’.
I 23. Item 874 ‘The same, first edit, imperfect, but contains 20 plays perfect, IO5 \6 d [n d ] \
92 24, Lee, Census Introduction, 8, quoting Beloe, says “ ‘a superb copy,” . . . realized thirteen [guineas] at Dr. Monro’s sale in 1792 (this apparently became afterwcu-ds the Grenville copy)’. The Grenville copy is now in the British Library. 1 found no entry for this volume in the sale catalogue of John Monroe’s library sold over fifteen days at Sotheby’s from 23 April 1792. 1 make the assumption that Beloe was correct about the thirteen guinea price and that Lee misstated where the sale occurred.
1792 25. Lee, Census, copy 9, says ‘purchased c 1792 by Henry Constantine Jennings, a well-known collector (1731-1819 [DNE]), for 70 guineas of Thomas Payne, the bookseller.’ This copy is now in the Elizabethan Club Library, Yale University.
95233 26. ‘A Catalogue of the . . . very valuable library of Thomas Allen, Esq. which will be sold by auction, by Leigh and Sotheby, booksellers, at their House in York-Street, Covent-Garden. On Monday, June 1, 1795, and the nine following days.’ ‘[Lot] 1401 Shakespeare’s Plays, First Edition, blue turkey, gilt leaves-1623 [£] 18/18/-’. The buyer was ‘St John’.
98 27. ‘A Catalogue of the Extensive Library of the late Revd. Richard Farmer, D. D. Canon Residentiary of St. Paul’s, Master of Emmanuel College, Librarian to the University of Cambridge, and Fellow of the Royal and Antiquary Societies. . . . which will be sold by Auction by Mr. King . . . on Monday, May 7, 1798, And the Thirty-five following Days.’ Lot 7829 ‘Shakespeare’s Works, 1st edition, in folio, wants title; last leaf from the 4to [sic]. 1623 7/-/-’. Lee in his Census Introduction says that Farmer’s copy was bought ‘(in a somewhat dilapidated state) [by] Thomas Amyot for £7 in 1798’ (14) and that the volume sold in 1840 by Bishop Samuel Butler was ‘acquired c 1830, apparently of Thomas Amyot’ (15).
99 28. Thomas Allen’s copy $205 = £41 (Anon, ‘Marginalia’, New Shakespeareana, 2, no. 1 (New York, 1903), 23-34 (27)).
Otness (73) says that Edwards (Seller/Dealer) sold a copy in 1796 for ‘£3, 30s’ (sic). As he gives no ’/ source and the ‘£ 3 /30s’ is nonsense, 1 ignore this record. He could be referring to J Edward’s
Appendix S/P 6