2025/11/17 by Anna-Lujz Gilbert · 1 voice
Social Sciences · Economics, Econometrics and Finance · Arts and Humanities · #Historical and Literary Studies #Historical Economic and Social Studies #Scottish History and National Identity
paper · doi:10.1093/library/fpaf023
Abstract Comparatively little is known about England’s early book-auction trade outside of London and the university towns, with few catalogues surviving in major research repositories. This article uses, alongside these, a survey of newspaper advertisements and several catalogues preserved in a local parish library to plot the emergence and development of book sales in Devon around the turn of the eighteenth century. It identifies key individuals who undertook sales alongside their other bookselling and printing activities, and a trade which was focused on Exeter but which extended across the local region. By the 1720s, there was enough business to sustain (sometimes concurrent) sales every few weeks, providing a sociable arena for collectors to share their taste in books and for the books themselves to be circulated from one local library to the next.