England’s Earliest Female Bibliophile

(CURRER, Frances Mary Richardson).

A Catalogue of the Library collected by Miss Richardson Currer, at Eshton Hall, Craven, Yorkshire. By C. J. Stewart.

Four plates (as usual, a little foxed). xii, 501 pp. 8vo, orig. half-morocco & orig. marbled boards (joints & spine rubbed), spine gilt, t.e.g., others uncut. London: Printed for Private Circulation Only, 1833.

Limited to 100 copies only. This is the second of Miss Currer’s library catalogues; the first was issued in an edition of 40 (or 50) copies in 1820. “Miss Currer continually added to her collection, and found it necessary to have a new ‘Catalogue’ compiled by Mr. C.J. Stewart. One hundred copies of this handsome volume were printed in 1833 for private circulation. It contains four steel engravings representing the book-rooms and outside of the house; two may be seen in Dibdin’s works…The catalogue is admirably arranged after a modification of Hartwell Horne’s system of classification, and has a good alphabetical index. It is a model catalogue of a private library, and is now rare and much sought after.

Miss Currer’s library...contained many rarities. It was rich in natural science, topography, antiquities, and history. There was a fair collection of Greek and Latin classics…The books were all in choice condition, many with fine bindings.”–D.N.B., V, pp. 340-41.

Very good copy. Inscribed on the free front endpaper by Miss Currer to “Cooper Preston Esqr. With Miss Currer’s King Regards.” Bookplates of John Norcliffe Preston and A.R.A. Hobson.

❧ Gustave Brunet, Dictionnaire de Bibliologie Catholique, cols. 612-13. De Ricci, pp. 141-43.

Price: $7,500.00

Item ID: 5008