Sotheby & Co. (London); Christie's East (New York)

Three volumes (28 cm; 27 cm), I (10-11 June 1974): [218] pp., text illustrations (some in colour, 1 folding). 258 lots. II (11 November 1974): [172] pp., text illustrations (some in colour). Lots numbered 259-502. III (16 February 1994): [52] pp., text illustrations. 330 lots. Publisher’s printed green cloth boards (vols. I-II); publisher’s pictorial wrappers (vol. III). - Harrison Horblit (1912-1988) offered his library (on consignment or for sale), on varying terms, over many of years. Sotheby’s agreed to sell the entire collection in eight sessions, however it was wrenched away in 1974 after two sales; litigation promptly ensued. A contract drawn-up afterwards with the bookseller Harry Levinson also was broken, leading to fresh litigation. Before his death, the collector presented some books and manuscripts to Harvard College (Collector’s choice: a selection of books and manuscripts given by Harrison D. Horblit to the Harvard College Library, 1983) and concluded a sale to H.P. Kraus of the bulk of what remained. It was offered by Kraus in catalogues 154 (Incunabula from the libraries of Harrison D. Horblit, Paolo Giovio & others, 1979), 155 (Science, manuscripts, autographs, documents from the collections of Sir Thomas Phillipps, Harrison D. Horblit and others, 1980), 168 (The history of science including navigation: a first selection of books from the library of Harrison D. Horblit, 1984), 169 (The history of science including navigation: a further selection of books, 1641-1700 (Wing period) from the library of Harrison D. Horblit, 1985), 171 (The history of science including navigation: another selection of books from the library of Harrison D. Horblit, 1985), with smaller numbers of books introduced in other catalogues (a surprising number of Horblit books were still on the shelves when the Kraus stock was sent to auction, in 2003). Further books were consigned by Jean Mermin Horblit (1910-2009), the collector’s widow, to Christie’s in 1994; the following year, she donated Horblit’s Sir Thomas Phillipps Collection of books and manuscripts to the Grolier Club, and in 1998 she presented Horblit’s collection of early photographs and daguerreotypes to the Houghton Library at Harvard.