James West FRS (1703– 1772) Wimpole, the Harleian Library an...

James West FRS (1703– 1772) Wimpole, the Harleian Library and an Antiquarian Tour of England and Scotland; manuscript notebook and travel diary, 1733. Small 8vo; contemporary blind-ruled vellum over boards, two foredge metal clasps, covers lightly soiled and slightly bowed, some opening at inner hinges exposing sewing, textblock holding firm, marbled endpapers; unpaginated, comprising 160 pages of manuscript and 36 blanks interspersed, a couple of small tears, contemporary staining and smudging, but genrally speaking, internally excellent. Unsigned, but almost certainly James West. An extensive record of collecting, scholarship and travel; opening with a 34 page catalogue headed "Wympole June 14. 1733," apparently recording selected books and manuscripts examined in Edward Harley's library (see lot 31 for West's involvement in the sale of The Harleian Library to the British Museum). Entries describe early English Bibles, liturgical books, historical tracts and rare printing, frequently noting illustrations, annotations, provenance and defects. Highlights include an illustrated manuscript Gospel Harmony "Done at Little Gidding Anno MDCXXXV"; prayer books with revisions attributed to Laud, Cosin and Duppa; and "A most exceeding fine missal on vellom being a Present from John Duke of Bedford to King Henry 6th. In it are fine Illuminations of the King, the Duke of Bedford & his Dutchess," apparently describing the celebrated Bedford Hours, now British Library Add MS 18850. Further entries record a small illuminated missal attributed to Giulio Clovio, early printing by Wynkyn de Worde and Julian Notary, and numerous sixteenth-century English Bibles and primers. Four pages of associated room descriptions, apparently of Wimpole, record the arrangement of books by subject and language, together with portraits, sculpture and antiquities. Portraits listed include Sir Robert Cotton, Sir Isaac Newton, Camden, Charles I, Francis Bacon, Humfrey Wanley and Endymion Porter; a dining room sequence includes Pope, Swift and Prior, the latter two attributed to Richardson, alongside Shakespeare, Chaucer, Spenser, Ben Jonson, Butler, Cowley and Sir John Denham. West notes "fine Horses & Landskips done by Wotton" in the hall; portraits attributed to Van Dyck and Dahl near the chapel; Roman marble reliefs and classical busts; and "a magnificent Chappel painted throughout by Sr James Thornhill," whose Virgin at the altar is considered "the best Finished Picture of that master." The Bibles are praised as "the most noble Collection … in all Languages & of the Earliest Editions"; the English, Scottish and Irish history collection is described as so complete that scarcely a related tract could be named which it lacked. Twenty five pages of antiquarian, bibliographical and numismatic notes include extensive extracts headed "Out of Mr John Bagford MS Papers"; biographical notices of early English printers, including Wynkyn de Worde, Pynson, Grafton, Whitchurch, Berthelet and John Day; accounts of newspapers and their distribution, parchment manufacture and the first English book-auction catalogue. Further notes concern privately owned books and manuscripts, Hutton's collections, Abington's Worcestershire researches, engravers of English coinage and gold pieces associated with Cromwell and Lord Coleraine. Material examined at Mr Ames's in Ratcliff includes a printed representation of the Harkirk coin hoard of 1611; Thorpe's Rochester Bridge statutes are recorded as "shewed me by Mr Hearne of Edmund Hall Oxon." The 82-page travel journal runs from 3 July to 8 September 1733, beginning "I set out from Islington in a Chaise and four Horses"; proceeding through Oxford, the Midlands, Derbyshire, Yorkshire and Scotland, returning through northern and western England. At Oxford, West describes the Public Act, academic ceremonies and All Souls' libraries, with an enthusiastic reference to Handel's oratorios as "exceeding fine." Subsequent entries record the St Chad Gospels at Lichfield, electoral canvassing and charitable provision; Lombe's silk mills employing "near 300 hands"; Leeds cloth production; Edinburgh's Advocates' Library and public records; Corse's "Six Hogsheads of old Deeds"; Newcastle's coal trade; manuscripts at Carlisle; and Kendal's woollens. Descriptions of collections, country houses, churches and monuments mingle with observations on commerce, worship, roads and inns; concluding "came safe home LAUS DEO." A further twelve-page section of memoranda and documentary extracts includes "Extracts of Indentures of Coynage of Money from the Archives in the Tower of London", recording medieval and Tudor mint agreements through Philip and Mary; with names of mint officials, denominations, monetary standards and provisions for Irish recoinage. To the rear, twelve blank pages and three concluding pages of memoranda. A substantial notebook documenting West's bibliographical and numismatic researches, his examination of the Harleian collections before their dispersal, and an extended antiquarian tour of England and Scotland. Rich in detail, the manuscript contains considerably more material than can be represented in this description; examination in person is strongly recommended.

Estimate:£2,000

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