Details
[ASHBEE, Henry Spencer (1834-1900)]. Index librorum prohibitorum. Being Notes Bio-, Biblio-, Iconographical and Critical, on Curious and Uncommon Books. By Pisanus Fraxi. London: Privately Printed, 1877. Frontispiece and 3 plates. -- [ASHBEE, H.S.] Centuria librorum absconditorum. London: Privately Printed, 1879. Frontispiece and 10 plates. -- [ASHBEE, C.R.] Catena librorum tacendorum. London: Privately Printed, 1885. Frontispiece, 2 portraits printed on India paper, 1 facsmile plate.
3 works in 3 volumes, 4o (252 x 185 mm). Contemporary Roxburghe-style bindings of red morocco-backed cloth, top edges gilt, original wrappers bound in. Provenance: C.R. Ashbee (bookplate); Minto Wilson (bookplate); Arpad Plesch (bookplate)
ORIGINAL EDITION, LIMITED TO 250 COPIES; THIS IS OBVIOUSLY ONE OF THE AUTHOR'S OWN COPIES containing his bookplate, dated 1890, and incorporating his portrait (the other, with MS notes, is in the British Library). This vast and very descriptive bibliography of erotica and curiosa of all times and in various languages (it often supplies detailed accounts of, and excerpts from, these publications, and historical and biographical notes) has remained an indispensable work of reference on its subject. It was based on Ashbee's own collection of what T. Seccombe, in DNB, calls "Kruptadia." It formed a major part of his library of 8,764 title in 15,299 volumes which he left to the British Museum, where it became the foundation, and major portion of "The Private Case," the British equivalent of the "Enfer" and the "Giftschrank" of the Bibliothhque Nationale and the Preussische Staatsbibliothek. Indeed, the Private Case was so private that its contents were not listed in the General Catalogue of what is now the British Library, and it was a boon of the Principal Keeper's office that he alone had a key to it in the Department of Printed Books. Besterman 2055. (3)
3 works in 3 volumes, 4
ORIGINAL EDITION, LIMITED TO 250 COPIES; THIS IS OBVIOUSLY ONE OF THE AUTHOR'S OWN COPIES containing his bookplate, dated 1890, and incorporating his portrait (the other, with MS notes, is in the British Library). This vast and very descriptive bibliography of erotica and curiosa of all times and in various languages (it often supplies detailed accounts of, and excerpts from, these publications, and historical and biographical notes) has remained an indispensable work of reference on its subject. It was based on Ashbee's own collection of what T. Seccombe, in DNB, calls "Kruptadia." It formed a major part of his library of 8,764 title in 15,299 volumes which he left to the British Museum, where it became the foundation, and major portion of "The Private Case," the British equivalent of the "Enfer" and the "Giftschrank" of the Bibliothhque Nationale and the Preussische Staatsbibliothek. Indeed, the Private Case was so private that its contents were not listed in the General Catalogue of what is now the British Library, and it was a boon of the Principal Keeper's office that he alone had a key to it in the Department of Printed Books. Besterman 2055. (3)