A Catalogue of the Classic Contents of Strawberry Hill collected by Horace Walpole

Smith and Robins, 1842. Hard Cover. Very Good. STRAWBERRY HILL. A Catalogue of the Classic Contents of Strawberry Hill collected by Horace Walpole. xxiv, 250pp., lithograph portrait frontispiece, and wood engraved title-page. A very good copy bound in contemporary dark red half calf, marbled boards. Gilt panelled spine, marbled edges and end-papers. Some quite large strips of the marbled paper, removed from the marbled boards, and extremities and corners rubbed. Contemporary book-plate of William Rix Beloe, and a biographical note dated 1842 relating to Walpole's death. [William Rix Beloe, Esq., son of the Rev. William Beloe, the translator of Herodotus.] 4to. Smith and Robins, Printers. [1842]. £295.00 This is the first edition (of five), Merritt's issue I. The title-page stating that 'the Catalogue (at 7s each) will admit Four Persons to the Public View, and will be a passport to the Purchaser throughout the Sale..." On the last page there is a note that 'some inaccuracies will be discovered in the Catalogue, arising from a want of sufficient time for its examination.' In the second edition four more lots are added to the 10th day's sale, increasing them from 152 to 156. ref: An Account of Descriptive Catalogues of Strawberry Hill and of Strawberry Hill sale catalogues, together with a bibliography. Percival Merritt, Montague Press 1915. Sold by George Robins, the auctioneer. The sale was advertised to occupy twenty-four days, from April 25th to May 21st. The catalogue was badly compiled, and so much dissatisfaction was expressed at the intention of selling some of the collections en masse, that the contents of the seventh and eighth days' sale, which consisted of prints, drawings and illustrated books, were subsequently withdrawn, re-catalogued, and disposed of at a sale at Robins's rooms at Covent Garden, which lasted from the 13th to the 23rd of June. The amount realized at the sale at Strawberry Hill was £29,612, and at that in London, £3,837.