262
��NOTES BY THE WAY.
��it was therefore conceived (for the encouragement of learning) to publish the sale of these books this manner of way ; and it is hoped that this will not be unacceptable to scholars ; and therefore we thought it convenient to give an Advertisement concerning the manner of proceeding therein."
Many other particulars relating to the earliest book-auctions in England will be found in ' N. & Q.' at 2 S. xi. 463 ; 5 S. xii. 95, 211, 411 ; 6 S. ii. 297, 417 ; 9 S. vi. 86, 156.
It was nearly a century after the dispersal of Dr. Seaman's library when the first saleroom in this country devoted exclusively Samuel * kks, manuscripts, and prints was founded by Mr. Samuel Baker. Baker at York Street, Covent Garden, in 1774. About the same time he took George Leigh into partnership, and from 1775 to 1777 the firm was styled S. Baker & G. Leigh. After Baker's death in 1778 Leigh carried on the business alone ; but from 1780 to 1800 John Sotheby, Baker's nephew, was associated with Leigh, the firm being known as Leigh & Sotheby. In 1800 John Sotheby's nephew Samuel joined it, and until the death of Leigh in 1815 the John firm carried on their business at 145, Strand. John Sotheby died Sotheby in 1807, the year in which Hodgson's firm was founded ; and on Leigh's death, eight years later, Samuel continued the business by himself, moving to 3, Waterloo Street (now named Wellington Street), Strand, about 1817. Soon afterwards he took his son Leigh into partnership, and in 1826 Sotheby & Son printed a catalogue of the collections sold by Baker, Leigh, and Sotheby from 1724 to 1826. A set of the original catalogues, with the purchasers' names and prices, is in the British Museum. Samuel Sotheby conducted the dispersal of many famous libraries. He retired in 1827, and died at Chelsea on the 4th of January, 1842, in his seventy-first year. An obituary notice of Mr. Edward Grose Hodge, who had succeeded to the business on the death of Mr. John Wilkinson, appeared in The Athenceum of the 1st of June, 1907. The business is now under the entire control of his son, Mr. Tom Hodge, and is, as is well known, styled Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge.
It is pleasing to note the compliment to Sothebys paid by Mr. Sidney Hodgson in his interview with the representative of The Daily Telegraph : "In recent years the whole of the book- auction- eering trade has been confined to three or four London houses, of which, as every one knows, Messrs. Sotheby are at the head." Mr. Hodgson is keen in his search for rarities, and among his finds was a book in a library in Yorkshire which had been regarded as of no value, but fetched 470L
Conditions of The conditions of sale were virtually the same in 1807 as they
sale in 1807. are now, and may be said to be identical with those originally adopted by the earliest book-auctioneers at the end of the seven- teenth century. For the first few years in Hodgson's history the
��Samuel Sotheby.
Edward Grose Hodge.
��Sidney
Hodgson's
compliment
to Sothebys.
�� �
