Wilfred M. Voynich (London)

Thirty catalogues (21-22 cm), of which 25 are bound in two volumes (1-16, 18-26), contemporary half-morocco (original wrappers preserved), and five are as issued in the publisher’s printed wrappers. - A good run of catalogues issued by Wilfred Michael Voynich (1865-1930), lacking just four in the series (17, 30, 33-34). Voynich’s “Short catalogues” (the term “short” was dropped for nos. 22-34) continued a series of nine, consecutively-paginated “Lists” which he issued between 1898 and 1902. Rare: “The British Library has a run of the nine Lists, and patchy holdings between catalogues 15 and 34” (David Pearson, Provenance research in book history: a handbook, London 1994, p.169). Cf. Arnold Hunt, “Foreign dealers in the English trade” in Out of print & into profit: a history of the rare and secondhand book trade in Britain in the Twentieth century (London 2006), esp. pp.247-253. ¶ Paper of several catalogues heavily browned. Bindings worn, but sound.