bible for 595l. at the sale of the Bishop of Cashel's library in February 1858; within a space of forty years no less than six separate copies of this rare and costly book were in his possession. His first large catalogue was published in 1858, a volume with about five thousand articles. He removed in 1860 to 15 Piccadilly, where he remained for the rest of his life, but retained the Castle Street shop as a warehouse. A complete catalogue of his stock, with an index, describing about seven thousand works, was produced in 1860. He purchased extensively at the Libri sales in 1859 and 1861, and at the Van Alstein sale ; at Ghent in 1863, and issued an enlarged
catalogue in 1864.
Nearly one half of the books of the Perkins sale (1873) were acquired by Quaritch, who in the same year purchased the non-scientific portion of the Royal Society's Norfolk Library. These accretions helped to form the basis of his 'Bibliotheca Xylographica, Typographica, et Palaeographica : Catalogue of Block Books and of early Productions of the Printing Press in all Countries, and a Supplement of Manuscripts' (October 1873, 8vo, pp. 167). In this remarkable catalogue, the best of the kind that had yet been produced by a bookseller, the books are arranged under the names of towns and printers, with descriptions of nearly seventeen hundred examples from the earliest presses. It is included in a large volume published in 1874, of which another division was devoted to romances of chivalry, early fiction, and popular books, arranged on a novel system, the romances under the headings of their respective cycles, with original introductions and notes. Another highly interesting section was that of Americana, early books of travel, and editions of the Latin Ptolemy. The execution of these special catalogues is due to Mr. Michael Kerney, who since 1862 had been Quaritch's chief cataloguer and was hence-forward his trusted literary adviser. In these and subsequent catalogues all the scholarly descriptions of the chief rarities, the manuscripts, and the oriental literature were by the same hand, whose merit and usefulness Quaritch always freely acknowledged. The purchases at Sir William Tite's sale in 1874 amounted to 9,500l., and with other additions to a rapidly growing stock were described in a large 'Supplemental Catalogue' (1877). With its predecessor it included 44,324 articles, or about two hundred thousand volumes. A large number of precious books from the first and second Didot sales (1878-9) fell into his hands, and in September 1880 he published an immense catalogue, six and three-eighths inches thick, weighing nine pounds fifteen ounces, and containing 2,395 pages with an extensive index, perhaps the most bulky tome ever produced by a second-hand bookseller (Notes and Queries, 6th ser. iii. 341-3).
The achievements of the Didot sales were followed by a series of triumphs as the principal purchase of rare and important articles at the following London auctions : David Laing's library (1879) ; the Ramirez Mexican collection (1880) ; the great Sunderland-Marlborough library (1881-3) ; the Beckford-Hamilton collections (1882-4) ; Sir John Thorold's Syston Park library (1884); the Osterley Park Jersey library (1885) ; the fine stock of a retiring bookseller, F. S. Ellis, in the same year ; Mr. Wodhull's collection, and Dr. Shadford Walker's books (1886), Gibson Craig's library (1887), a part of the Seilliere collection sold in London (1887) ; the Hopetoun library as well as that of Frederick Perkins in the same year; R. S. Turner's library in 1888; Lord Crawford's 'turn-outs' in 1887-1889 ; the partial sale of the Hamilton manuscripts in 1889 ; Mr. Gaisford's fine English ollection in 1890 ; Lord Ashburnham's library of valuable printed books in 1897-8, and the partial sale of his manuscripts in 1899 ; the collections of William Morris and the Rev. J. Makellar in 1898. He also took the most prominent position as purchaser at certain French sales during the same period ; the rare Americana of A. Pinart in 1883, and of Dr. Court in 1884; the Seilliere sales in 1890-3, and the various stages of the sale of the Salva-Heredia collection in 1892-3.
The various catalogues previously mentioned were issued from time to time in sections as they were ready, and these separate publications with many occasional rough lists of recent purchases extended to nearly five hundred in number. The last complete record of his stock was a 'General Catalogue of Old Books and Manuscripts' (1887-8, index 1892, 7 vols. 8vo, also in large paper with portrait), increased by special supplements between 1894 and 1897 to about twelve volumes, a monument of bookselling enterprise, and of considerable bibliographical value, alike as a criterion of price and for the extraordinary quantity of choice specimens described therein.
Quaritch's activity gradually diminished during the last few years of his life, but never to any striking degree. In the course of a successful career extending over more than fifty years he developed the most extensive trade in old books in the world.
