The evening times., 1899-06-17
EXTRAORDINARY COLLECTIONS.
Those of IA Man Whom "Price Never
Frightened"
(From the London Athcnaer

From the London Athcnaeum)
Mr.. William Wright. of Paris. about
equally well known to book collectors and
to sporting men of the two countries. has
determined to sell his collection of auto
graph letters, his library, and his engraved
and other portraits In many respects this
is the choicest collection of it's kind which
| has come into the market within recent
years, and IL will occupy Messrs. Sotheby
seven days in ALL beginning on June Il.
Mr.. Wright has apparently never expert
enced the luxury CT self-denial in the mat
ter of books. for. as he himself says. price
never frightened me" if any particular
book was wanted. glance through his
catalogue will largely bear out this frank
admission, for it contains many volumes
fer which the average collector would
commit any number of sins. The three
great attractions among the works are the
extra illustrated lives OF Dickens. Kean.
and Garrick. Few books of recent years
have been more frequently grangerized
than Forster's Life of Dickens but no
example OF this species OF bookmakiag can
be compared with Mr.. Wright's. The three
octave volumes are inlaid and extended
to twelve volumes folio. and comprise Ii9
autograph letters of Dickens himself. and
nearly 400 others of contemporaries. There
are i54 portraits Of literary and other
celebrities. 200 views of places connected
with Dickens or his works. playbills, and
thousand and one other Dickensiana.
The copy Of Hawkins Life of Kean''
is extended from two octave TO eight folio
volumes by the insertion of about $50 let
ters. 225 autograph letters, 200 rare play
bills. caricatures. and so forth. Barry
Cornwalls Life of Kean'' is also exten-
sively extra illustrated. Davies Life of
David Garrick" is similarly extra-i illus
trated, and contains $50 rare portraits leo
autograph letters. playbilIs. pamphlets.
and a great variety of other matter. The
collections and extra-illustrated books re-
lat:ng TO the old pleasure gardens of Lon
don. theatres and eminent actors and act
resses are too long TO be specially men,
toned. but all appear to have been done
with thoroughness. The works illustrated
by George Cruikshank extend from lot II
TO lot 2S2, and form series that has rare
ly been equaled. The Dickens lots are
over $50 in number, and include besides
Forster's Life" already mentioned the
original autograph MS of THE Battle OF
Life one of the three MSS. of Dickens
row in private hands. There are about
eighty lots of works illustrated by T.
Rowlandson, and nearly that number Of
Thackeray entries. including The Second
Funeral of Napoleon 1871.
But if Mr.. Wright was successful as
book collector. it is difficult to find an
tpitucl WOuiu IuliS upSETlDe MIN as
a collector of autographs. These alone
will occupy three days in selling. and ex-
tend from lot !, ,0s4 to lot l525. The series
of Garrick letters. siXty-four in all. and
nearly every one of importance. is probably
the finest since that extraordinary series of
forty eight unpublished letters of his came
under the hammer at Puttick's on Decem-
Der Il. 1S49, nearly fifty years ago. Mr..
Wright's series is to be offered at one lot
at the reserve price of G400-a little over
&c per letter-and if that sum be not
reached they will then be offered sepa-
rately. 1t would now be quite impossible
to form another series of such great in
terest, and one cannot help expressing the
hope that these letters may be secured en-
bloc for the club which bears Garrick's
name.
The majority of the other letters are Of
actors and actresses of eminence in their
day: but many are from literary celebri-
ties. There are six from Boswell of which
from Dickens. thirteen from Foote. most
ly addressed to the Delavals: number
from Mrs. David Garrick; thirteen are
from Samuel johnson, and nearly the
same number (most of them from the
Kean sale of last season. from Edmund
Kean; seventeen from Mrs. Siddons. and
others are from George Stevens. Thack-
cray, voltaire. and Horace walpole. to
mention only a very small number
1t is impossible to do more than indi-
cate the richness of this collection of au-
tograph letters. from nearly all of which
the catalogue will give reasonably fall ex-
tracts. Mr.. Wright's aim has apparently
been not merely to obtain a signed docu-
ment of this or that celebrity. but to Sc
cure a characteristic letter important from
its contents as we'll as interesting on ac-
count of its signature. In this respect he
has undoubtedly been extraordinarily sue
cessful.