A FEW NOTES ON A SELECTED PORTION OF THE Halliwell-Phillipps Library Which will be SOLD BY AUCTION, at Messrs. SOTHEBY'S in JUNE, 1889, BY ERNEST E. BAKER, F.S.A., The Nephew and Executor of the late J. O. HALLIWELL-PHILLIPPS, WESTON-SUPER-MARE: Printed for Private Circulation at the "GAZETTE" OFFICE. "The results of the Sale of this fine old Library (The "Hopetoun) by Messrs. Sotheby, Wilkinson, and Hodge, show "that the value of all the choice editions of rare books continues to advance, notwithstanding the number that have in recent years been brought to competition in the auction room, which is always the truest test." 66 66 The Times, 2nd March, 1889. PREAMBLE. I have prepared in the following pages a few notes of the very interesting books and MSS. which form a selected portion of the library my late uncle, J. O. Halliwell-Phillipps, bequeathed to me, and which, with a large number of his other books and MSS. of Shakespearean interest not specially catalogued herein, will be sold at the world-famed rooms of Messrs. Sotheby during the month of June next. In order that it may not appear passing strange that I, who am as fond of books as any man can be, should within a short time after receiving my legacy of the library, send it to the auction rooms and disperse it under the hammer, I print the following extract from a memorandum left by my late uncle, and dated November last : "Pray sell no books, nor engravings, nor "manuscripts, nor old deeds, &c., by private "contract. If you do, you will be 'done' as sure "as a whistle. I am continually adding rarities |