25th Jan, 2023 10:30 GMT/BST
The David Stather Library
![Lot 150 - Peck [Francis] Desiderata Curiosa: or, A...](https://tennants.blob.core.windows.net/stock/2997916-0-medium.jpg?v=63808592882200 "Click for high resolution")
150
Peck [Francis]
Desiderata Curiosa: or, A Collection of Divers, Scarce and Curious Pieces relating chiefly to matters of English History; Consisting of Choice Tracts, Memoirs, Letters, Wills, Epitaphs, &c. ....
Thomas Evans, 1779, two quarto volumes bound as one, xvii, [7], 238, [10], vi, [10], [239]-581, [9] pages, portrait frontis, nine plates as called for, title page tanned with frayed fore-edge, publisher's acknowledgement leaf worn and taped at fore-edge, fore-edge margin tears to P1, 3P3 and 4G3, margin of 4G1 (index) torn with some loss of text, calf (recently rebacked). ESTC T97522;
Morgan (J.) [compiler], Phoenix Britannicus: Being a Miscellaneous Collection of Scarce and Curious Tracts, Historical, Political, Biographical, Satirical ..... Vol I, containing numbers I, II, III, IV, V & VI [all published].
Printed for the Compiler and T. Edlin .... And J. Wilford ...1732, quarto, [12], viii, 56, 65-96, [2], ii, [2], 99-584 pages, text and register continuous despite pagination, some marginal worming, tear to lower margin of 3M3 touching text, panelled calf (re-backed retaining original backstrip);
With nine others. (11)
Sold for £650
Estimated at £300 - £500
Auction: The David Stather Library, 25th Jan, 2023
A single-owner sale of the Library of David Stather (1940-2022)
The library comprises a large collection of early books, pamphlets and manuscripts on English history, focusing on the English Civil War, the ‘Popish Plot’, the Monmouth Rebellion and the Glorious Revolution, early Parliament and the Monarchy of that period, the development of English law, the Reformation, early bibles and prayer books, chronicles of English history and some very early books on witchcraft.
The earliest manuscript dates from 1285, and the earliest book is an incunable from 1486, however the majority date from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Interestingly, many are books that contribute to English history rather than just reporting on it, for example the collection includes books reporting the Popish Plot, which were written specifically to create social division through what is now known as ‘fake news’.
The books have been lovingly preserved by David Stather and the auction provides a rare opportunity to purchase books from a very focused collection built up over his lifetime.
Please submit any enquiries for the sale to books@tennants-ltd.co.uk
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Tuesday 24th January 10am-5pm and the morning of the sale from 8am
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