refer to a few of the more important of
Evans's sales, in addition to the two foregoing: In 1813 he sold the
fine collection of early-printed books collected by Stanesby Alchorne,
Master of the Mint, Earl Spencer having previously bought Alchorne's
Caxtons; in 1815 the Duke of Grafton's library; in 1818-19 two parts of
James Bindley's collection; in 1819-20 the White Knights Library of the
Marquis of Blandford; in 1832-33 John Broadley's collection of books,
which included the celebrated 'Bedford Missal,' bought by Sir John Tobin
for L1,100, and now in the British Museum; in 1833 Edmund Burke's books;
Lord Byron's in 1827; T. F. Dibdin's, 1817; the Earl of Guilford's, in
three parts, 1830-35; the fourth, sixth, seventh, eighth, and eleventh
parts of the Heber Collection, 1834-36; the books of Thomas Hill ('Paul
Pry'), 1841; Daniel and Samuel Lysons, 1820, 1828, 1834; G. and W.
Nicol, booksellers, 1825; Colonel Stanley, 1813; Sir M. M. Sykes, three
parts, 1824; and J. Towneley, 1814-45, 1828. A complete list of Evans's
sales is contributed by Mr. Norgate to _The Library_, iii. 324-330. Of
the auctioneer himself a few details will not be out of place. Robert
Harding Evans was the son of Thomas Evans, a bookseller of the Strand,
and served his apprenticeship with Tom Payne at the News Gate. Leaving
here, he succeeded to the business of James Edwards, Pall Mall, and was
induced by George Nicol to undertake the sale by auction of the Duke of
Roxburghe's library. The experiment was such a success that he became
almost exclusively known as an auctioneer, and his business as a
bookseller speedily declined. He was an admirable auctioneer, having an
excellent memory and a vast fund of information; but he neglected the
most important of all matters in commercial life, his ledgers. He had to
give up selling books by auction, but restarted as a bookseller in Bond
Street, with his two sons as partners; but his day was over, and here
failure again followed him. He died in Edwards Street, Hampstead Road,
April 25, 1857, aged eighty.

A few other firms of book-auctioneers, although, with one exception,
they have ceased to exist, call for mention. Sam Paterson, than whom no
more popular an auctioneer ever wielded a hammer, was, as we have
already seen, first a bookseller. Sam--we employ the little familiarity
by which he was universally known--was born in 1728 in the parish of St.
Paul, Covent Garden, and lived on till 1802, his death bei