A Catalogue of Books. iv, 1948 pp. WITH: New, Valuable, and Most Important Books, of which, the Advertiser has Purchased the Entire Editions or Remainders, and now Offered at Very Reduced Price s. 148, [iv] pp

Londoon: Henry C. Bohn, 1841.

Thick 8vo. 210 x 140 mm.; [8 ¼ x 5 ½ inches]. Illustrated with a view of Bohn's York Street premises and a title-page designed in antique style printed on card stock. Bound in original red morocco spine and tips, marbled paper covers; joints and part of spine expertly repaired with Japanese tissue. The catalogue measures 5 inches [130 mm.].

Henry Bohn was the son of a German bookbinder who emigrated to England in the early years of the century. Henry began selling rare books in 1831 and opened his publishing company in 1846. This catalogue organized by subject beginning with books of prints, architecture, numismatics, heraldry, all fields of natural history, medicine, physics and metaphysics, law, language, and bibliography. These subjects are followed by English, Irish and Scottish history, voyages and travel, the literature of Northern Europe, sporting books, poetry, Greek and Latin classics, French, Italian, Spanish, and German books, manuscripts, and finally English books. In all 23208 books are described, many with original annotation, followed by a detailed index.

"In announcing that it is the largest volume of the kind which has hitherto issued from the press, and that it represents the most extensive and select assortment ever recorded as the stock of a bookseller, he trusts he shall not be thought to indulge unreasonable in self-congratulations." Introduction

The London Literary Gazette reviewed the catalogue in sterling fashion:

"Mr. Bohn was outdone all former doings in the same line, and given us a literary curiosity of remarkable character. The volume is the squattest and the fattest we ever saw. . .Why there is a list of more than 23,000 articles, and the pages reach to 1948. The catalogue has cost him an outlay of upwards of £2,000 and it describes 300,000 volumes; a stok which could hardly be valued at much less than a plum:"

S. Austin Allibone, editor of A Critical Dictionary of English Literature and British and American Authors writes:

"Having long made Bibliography our special study, we may be allowed to express the opinion that the Guinea Catalogue is an invaluable lexicon to any literary man, and ten guineas would be a cheap price for a work calculated to save time by its convenience for reference, and money by its stores of information as to the literary and pecuniary value of coveted tomes."

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