Christie, Manson & Woods Ltd (London)

(26 cm), 85 (11) pp., illustrations. Lots numbered 1-281. List of prices realised and buyers’ names loosely inserted. Errata sheet loosely inserted (”Supplementary lots”, 275A-275H). 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. 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). 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 collector’s papers relating to his collection, including purchase invoices and valuations, are in the Grolier Club Library. ¶ Unmarked copy, except for inserted sheet of “Supplementary Lots” (priced in ink).