Sotheby & Co. (London)

Four volumes (25 cm), I (17-18 June 1946): 38 pp., 26 plates (pls.1-26, some folding). Lots numbered 1-298. II (4-5 November 1946): 43 (1) pp., folding frontispiece, 38 plates (pls.I-XXXVIII). Lots numbered 299-534. III (10-11 March 1947): 40 pp., folding frontispiece, 34 plates (pls.I-XXXIV, some folding). Lots numbered 535-737. Publisher’s printed wrappers. IV (9 June 1947): 17 (1) pp., 11 plates (pls.I-XI, the last folding). Lots numbered 738-833. Publisher's printed wrappers. - Charles William Dyson Perrins (1864-1958) was the “Perrins” of Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce, sometime mayor of Worcester, and High Sheriff of the county. He also collected Royal Worcester porcelain, and when the porcelain factory itself faced closure, Perrins sent his printed books to Sotheby’s, and with the sale proceeds bought the factory; his interest in printed books had anyhow “lessened considerably by this date, now that friends such as [A.W.] Pollard [who had published a catalogue of Perrins’ Italian books, in 1914] were no longer there to enjoy them with him, and he wrote frankly in a letter to another friend: ‘Illuminated manuscripts are living things – especially those of the first rank – and are of constant interest, whereas printed books are dead!’” (from a memoir by Eric Millar, in The Book Collector, Summer 1958, pp.118-120). Percy Muir, “Private Libraries, XXIV: Mr C. W. Dyson Perrins, II: The Development of Illustration” in The Times Literary Supplement, 24 February 1940, p.104. More bibliographical reference books from the Dyson Perrins library were sold by Sotheby’s on 22-23 June 1959. ¶ Wrappers damaged; part IV neatly annotated in ink, otherwise good, unmarked copies.