Christie, Manson & Woods Ltd (London)

(26 cm), 85 (11) pp., illustrations. Lots numbered 1-281. Publisher’s pictorial wrappers. - Primarily a collector of modern fine printing and fine binding, John Saks gathered this collection of approximately 1000 volumes during some fourteen years, principally through Fiametta Witt of Leo S. Olschki and H.D. Lyon. A portion of Saks’ vast library had been sold by Parke-Bernet in 1963; the main part, comprising his collections of private press books, was dispersed by Christie’s between 1977 and 1983. The top price (£900, estimate £1800-£2400) was paid by Breslauer for the 1745 edition of Tasso’s Gerusalemme Liberata (sale total was £63,665 with 6% unsold; sale report in The Times, 11 June 1981, p.2). The collector’s archive, including purchase invoices and valuations, is in the Grolier Club Library. Donald C. Dickinson, Dictionary of American Book Collectors (New York 1986), pp.278-279; Stephen C. Massey, in Grolier 2000: a further Grolier Club biographical retrospective (New York 2000), pp.335-338. ¶ Annotated copy, partly priced. No price list.