HEBER (Richard). Bibliotheca Heberiana. Catalogue of the Library of the Late Richard Heber, Esq... Removed from his House in York-Street, Westminster, Which Will be Sold by Auction, by Messrs. Sotheby and Son [Evans; Wheatley]...1834

[London: Printed by W. Nicol], 12 Volumes bound in four, 8vo (209 x 126 mm), [iv], 388; xii, 363, [1]; [iv], 295, [1]; vii, [iii], 355, [1]; [iv], 257, [1]; [iv], 314; [iv], 306; [iv], 170; [iv], 195, [1]; [iv], 117, [1]; [iv], 189, [1]; [iv], 83, [1]; [iv], 82, [2]pp., title page to part one loose, several faint unobtrusive blind stamps, later green buckram, red morocco spine labels lettered in gilt, slightly rubbed. Heber was a book collector on a monumental scale, De Ricci estimated his library between two and three hundred thousand volumes. The sales took place at a time when the market was absolutely glutted and there were practically no buyers. The total realised was £65,774, for books which had cost their late owner a good deal over £100,000. "The Dibdinian age may be aptly said to terminate with the dispersal of the gigantic library accumulated by Richard Heber, a bibliomaniac if there ever was one... From 1800 to 1830, he purchased at every London sale... He thought nothing of securing whole libraries... When he died, his books filled two houses in London, one at Hodnet, one at Oxford, one at Ghent and one at Paris, not to speak of smaller stores at... other Continental cities. The total number of volumes in his library must have been between two and three hundred thousand, and it is doubtful whether any private individual has ever owned so large a library... The London sales produced £56,744, for books which had cost their late owner over £100,000. The market was absolutely glutted and there were practically no new buyers... The Heber catalogues, although... arranged in the most inconvenient manner, are daily consulted by every bibliographer... His series of Continental books, early Italian and Spanish works, later Latin poetry, humanistic treatises... were unrivalled... The real strength... was, however, in the field of early English literature... For thirty years he... purchased nearly every item which came on the market".—De Ricci, p.102. Organised according to the residences where Heber kept his libraries, the present catalogues number 1 - 12 were held in 1834, 1835, & 1836. Sotheby's managed the auction for parts 1-3 and 9-10; R. H. Evans, for parts 4 and 6-8 and 11; B. Wheatley, parts 5 and 12. A thirteenth and final portion was old by Wheatley on 22nd February, 1837, this concluding sale, which is notoriously scarce, consisted of "The Entire Collection which this Distinguished Amateur formed during a three year residence in Holland." Provenance: Bookplate of the New York bookseller H. P. Kraus; bookplate of Christian Heuer.