Publisher and Bookseller Materials from the Collection of Sir Thomas Phillipps
Scope and Content
Letters related to publishing and bookselling from the collection of legendary collector Sir Thomas Phillipps. The 34 items in this collection date from approximately 1749 to 1835, and contain letters from a wide variety of booksellers, printers, authors, readers, clergymen, foreign dignitaries and antiquaries. Many letters concern ordering books from printers and booksellers, while other letters concern payments due to authors and discussions of books. Some letters bear Phillipps' manuscript catalog numbers. Many also still bear seals and postmarks.
Dates
- Creation: 1749-1835
Access
Collection is open for research.
Publication Rights
Copyright has not been assigned to the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, UCLA. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Clark Librarian. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, UCLA as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained.
Biographical Note
Sir Thomas Phillipps was a book and manuscript collector from young adulthood, who amassed the largest manuscript collection of the 19th century. He was born in 1792, the illegitimate son of a textile manufacturer, and began collecting while a student at Rugby and later at Oxford. Though he inherited a substantial estate upon his father's death, his bibliomania and "vello-mania" (his obsession with manuscripts on vellum) resulted in his being nearly perpetually in debt.
After Phillipps' death in 1872, his library was left to his youngest daughter and her family. Beginning in 1885, they began to disperse the collection at a series of sales that only ended in 1977, when New York dealers H.P. Kraus purchased the remainder.
Extent
0.21 Linear Feet (1 box)
Language of Materials
English
Abstract
Letters related to publishing and bookselling in 18th and 19th century England, from the collection of Sir Thomas Phillipps.
Arrangement
Letters are arranged in the original order in which they arrived at the Clark Library. It is unclear whether this arrangement was imposed by Sotheby's, Kraus or even Phillipps.
Physical location
Clark Library
Acquisition Information
Originally from the collection of Sir Thomas Phillipps, some letters collected here still bear his manuscript numbers. Later, part of the H.P. Kraus inventory auctioned at Sotheby's New York, December 5, 2003, lot 519.
Purchased by the Clark Library in 2003.
Processing History
Processed by Rebecca Fenning, September 2009.
Genre / Form
Topical
- Title
- Finding Aid for Publisher and Bookseller Materials from the Collection of Sir Thomas Phillipps 1749-1835
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- Processed by Rebecca Fenning.
- Date
- ©2009
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
Repository Details
Part of the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library Repository