ortant
properties came to hand--the effects of Samuel Tyssen, 1802,
thirty-eight days, L9,102 16s. 7d.; Prince Talleyrand (_Bibliotheca
Splendidissima_), 1816, eighteen days, only L8,399; James Bindley, 1819,
twenty-eight days, L7,692 6s. 6d.; the Dimsdales, 1824, seventeen days,
L7,802 19s. Of course, very interesting days have been experienced where
the financial result was not very striking, as when, in 1799, the firm
disposed of the library of the Right Hon. Joseph Addison, 'Author and
Secretary of State,' for L533 4s. 4d.; and in 1833 of that of 'the
Emperor Napoleon Buonaparte' (_sic_), removed from St. Helena, for L450
9s. (his tortoiseshell walking-stick bringing L38 17s.); and, once more,
when the drawings of T. Rowlandson, the caricaturist, were sold in 1818
for L700. The libraries of the Marquis of Lansdowne, 1806; the Duke of
Queensberry, 1805; Marquis of Townsend, 1812; Count McCarthy, 1789;
H.R.H. the Duke of York, 1827; James Boswell, 1825; G. B. Inglis, 1826;
Edmond Malone, 1818; Joseph Ritson, 1803; John Wilkes, 1802; and a large
number of others, came under the hammer at Sotheby's from 1744 to 1828.
But the portions--the first, second, third, ninth, and tenth--of the
stupendous Heber Library, dispersed here in 1834, owing to the
prevailing depression, and what Dibdin called the _bibliophobia_, nearly
ruined the auctioneers. They rallied from the blow, however, and have
never suffered any relapse to bad times, whatever account they may be
pleased to give of the very piping ones which they have known pretty
well ever since 1845, when Mr. Benjamin Heywood Bright's important
library was entrusted to their care. The secret of this steady and
sustained progress is to be found in the general confidence secured by
strict commercial integrity. The house receives business, but never
solicits it. During the last half century nearly every important library
has been sold at Sotheby's, including the Hamilton Palace and Beckford,
the Thorold, the Osterley Park, the Seilliere, and the Crawford
libraries.

[Illustration: _R. H. Evans, Book-auctioneer, 1812._]

But from 1812 to 1845 the most important libraries were almost
invariably sold by R. H. Evans, who began with the famous Roxburghe
Collection--this sale, it may be mentioned, was held at the Duke's
house, now occupied by the Windham Club, 13, St. James's Square--in
1812, and finished with the sixth part of the library of the Duke of
Sussex in 1845. We can only