Author: SOTHEBY (S. Leigh)
Title: Specimen of Mr. S. Leigh Sotheby's Principia Typographica, A Extensively Illustrated Work, in Three Volumes, Imperial Quarto, on the Block-Books, or Xylographic Delineations of Scripture History Issued in Holland, Flanders, and Germany, During the Fifteenth Century; on their Connexion with the Origin of Printing, and on the Character of the Water-Marks in the Paper of the Period.
Description: London. 1858. Folio, specimen title and list of purchases, 4pp.; specimen notice title (loose) and advertisement, 4pp.; title-page of vol. I of "Principia," with introduction and list of plates, 16pp.; index to vol. 3 of Principia, 13 leaves; 8 plates, slight spotting, with the bookplate of C.W. Loscombe, presented by Sotheby in acknowledgement of the assistance he had obtained in books lent from Loscombe in compiling this work, cont. half morocco, rubbed. Bigmore & Wyman II, 373-74. "The copies of the 'Principia' were not published in the ordinary way, but offered to the trade by Messrs. Sotheby & Co., at public auction, the upset price being nine guineas each copy. They were all disposed of in two hours." This specimen book was compiled from the remaining sheets of his 'Principia Typographica' and issued as a prospectus in conjunction with the 1858 auction.

Keywords: PRINTING ANTIQUARIAN