Description

[003641] Dobell, Bertram. Browning Memorials – A Catalogue of Books, Drawings, Autograph Letters, and Other Relics, Purchased at the Recent Dispersal of the Browning Collections. London: Bertram Dobell, First Edition. 8vo. Paper Covers. Pamphlet. Good. 40pp, n.d. but 1913. Original paper wrappers.

Staples rusted, covers browned to edges, otherwise fairly clean.

The dispersal of the collection of Pen Browning (at Sotheby’s in 1913), the breaking up of which was described by the Browning Institute as “one of the most melancholy events in modern literary history”. Dobell bought 143 lots at the sale, leading to this catalogue issued later the same year. The Browning Institute goes on to note that the “special value of Dobell’s catalogue lies in the fact that the better known Sotheby’s catalogue, The Browning Collections … frequently offers vague or partial descriptions of heterogeneous material in large lots; only by consulting the Dobell catalogue… can one actually find the items – which were concealed among the Sotheby lots – separately listed” (See Browning Institute Studies, Vol.2 (1974) – where this catalogue was reprinted in full)