(AUCTION CATALOGUE: KLOSS). Catalogue of the Library of Dr. Kloss, of Franckfort aM...
which will be sold by Auction, by Mr. Sotheby and Son...on Thursday, May 7th, and Nineteen following Days. Frontis. & 7 plates of facsimiles (all folding). xxiii, [3]-343 (i.e. 345), [1] pp. 8vo, orig. green cloth-backed boards (spine a little faded), printed paper label on spine, uncut. London: 1835. The sale catalogue of the Kloss collection of early printed books and manuscripts which the Frankfurt doctor had brought together, with a somewhat speculative eye, between 1817 and 1835. It was decided to send the collection for sale in London as an offer from various of the more important German libraries for the 17,000 thalers asked was not forthcoming. The sale was remarkable on two accounts: firstly it was a wholesale disaster, as the 4682 lots fetched altogether 2261 pounds only (the Catholicon for instance made the pitiful sum of 19 pounds 15s., the Fust-Schöffer Bible of 1462 20 pounds 10s.), and secondly because during the cataloguing Samuel Leigh Sotheby developed something of an idée fixe, thinking he recognized some of the annotations in several lots as Philip Melanchthon’s autograph, an assertion he attempted to substantiate — despite Dr. Kloss’ vehement contradiction — in his well-known work of 1839. The Kloss collection was indeed rather unique in its field as it contained incunabula and books printed prior to 1550 (many from rare presses), notably schoolbooks and university texts which had not been seriously collected before; it was based on three entire and intact 16th century collections: that of J. von Dalberg, Bishop of Worms (d. 1503), B. Adelmann von Adelmannsted, and the library of the “Stadtkirche” at Esslingen, augmented with selections from the libraries of Chr. Scheurl, Schöffer, J. Fichard and the extremely fine library of the abbey of Ochsenhausen. A large number of the books from Kloss’ library remained in the trade until much later, and many of them eventually found their way to America. Fine copy. From the library of Eric H.L. Sexton, the noted collector of incunabula. 4637 lots, including MSS. With leaf 58* inserted. ❧ De Ricci, p. 117–“This extremely large, but not very handsome, collection of incunabula, mainly from German presses, formed by Dr. Georg Kloss of Franfurt, was sold by Sotheby...Every volume bore the Kloss book-plate and a reference to Panzer's Annales, neatly penned at the top of the reverse of the upper cover.”
$US1500
This item is listed on Bibliopoly by Jonathan A. Hill, Bookseller Inc.; click here for further details.