The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-10-14
GREAT WOMAN BIBLIOPHIE.
LITERARY TREASURE . or MRS. ".
O. POPE OF BROOKLYN.
usv Gas Been Called the Greatest Book
Collector OF Her sex That Ever Lived
Famous Books o. which she spent
900 - worth Double To-day.

Famous Books ON Wmch Snc spent
100000 - worth Double To-day.
A recent English writer has stated that
- FNnininc book collector has ever felt
,ha passIon which inspired q Grolier, a
De Thou, or a Spencer. This was possibly
RIA Of Diana Of Poitiers and other ladies
~ ad time, whose books are chiefly valu-
,bIe to-day for the splendor in which they
we're clothed by famous binders; but 1t
d decidedly untrue that all women biblio-
rh,lea have preferred tho outside TO tho
inside Of a book.
At least two modern instances can be
mentioned, Miss Mary Richardson Currer
al England, whose books were sold in
London in 1852. and Mrs. Norton Quincy
pope Of Brooklyn, whose library was
rrvately dispersed in this city in 1896
The London Times recently called Miss
Currer the greatest woman book COL
lector.'
That title properly belongs, however, to
Mr.. Pope. Miss Currer formed an ex-
,ensive library but not an important one.
Her collection would now realize but little
more than it did in 1852; the Pope library,
formed at a cost of about $500 900 and in
Guiding some OF the worlds most celebrated
book rarities and most beautiful manu-
scripts, would bring to-day considerably
more than $500, 600. it is believed.
Mn. Pope, who died in 1894, was born in
.Brooklyn, and before her marriage was
Miss Abby Il. Hanscom. Norton Quincy
Pope Of Chicago. whom she married after
many years Of unwedded life, did not long
survive her death.
Although he accompanied his wife to
auction sales and bookshops, it was a we'll
known fact that the credit for forming the
collection sold in 1895 belonged exclusively
TO Mrs. Pope. Her chief book and manu-
script treasures were purchased, in fact,
long before her marriage, Inc as early as
1885. when she outbid all other English and
American buyers and secured the rareet and
most valuable OF Cations imprints, she was
famous among ~bibliophiles and dealers as
q daring, learned and highly successful
collector.
Her love for rare books was shown in
the early sos, when she offered 500 900
for the Lenox Library's copy Of the Guten-
berg Bible, the earliest printed book. A
little later, in 1884, she secured her first
Shakespearean treasure, her London agents
paying E75O for a fine copy OF the First
Folio Of 1923. This was the second pur-
chase Of a First Folio Shakespeare by a
woman, the first nj only other sale OF this
kind occurring in 1894, when the Baroness
Burdett Coutts gave E7I8 %. for George
Daniels splendid copy.
Mrs. Pope later obtained equally fine
copies Of the Shakespeare Folios OF 1882,
1854, and 1885. The set was priced after her
death at $40. 900, and old at this figure to
Mr.. Folger of Brooklyn.
The Pope collection also included a beauti-
full copy Of Sh~akespeare's Poems" 1910;
several Of the quarto plays and duplicate
copies Of the third and fourth folios, the
former being a remarkable and possibly
unique example, with Ben Jonson's verses
upside down and above instead Of below
the portrait.
Although she never secured a Guten-
berg Bible Mrs. Pope obtained, two speci-
mems OF. early English publications which
are i~ncomparably rsrer and almost
equally valuable from a ~pecuniary stand
point. the first being unique. and the
second the finest copy in existence. These
books, now in Robert Hoes library, are
Malory's King Arthur" 1885. and Covers
'COnfessio Amantis," 1883, both splendidly
printed by William Caxton, England's first
typographer.
The King Arthur one Of Cartons most
magnificent achievements and the ediio
p~rinceps Of one of the grandest works OF
old English literature. now exists in only
two copies, the Pope example, perfect and
immaculate, and Earl Spencer's copy, with
ten leaves in facsimile, o in the Rylands
library in Manchester. The "Confessio."
also the editio priNceps Of a great work by
one OF the earliest English authors, is one
Of the rarest and most valuable of Cax-
toms productions, only FIVE perfect copies
being known. The Pope copy is the finest
n the five and car be called unique, as it
has the original four blank leaves.
Originally owned by Robert Harley, who
had ffty-siX Cations. the Mallory and the
Cover later belonged to Bryan Fairfax,
Child, the banker. and to the fifth Earl OF
Jersey and his SUCCESSORS. In 1885 the
Jersey library was sold in London and Mrs.
Pope, represented by the elder Quaritch,
challenged and vanquished the ~ibliophiles
who coveted these prizes, capturing the
King Arthur at E1 $50 and the -ConfessiO'
at ESQ. To-day they would probably bring
rs 900 and SIS 900 respectively.
In 1887 Mrs. Pope secured her finest manu-
script, the famous Charles VI. missal, exc
cuted for this French monarch in the early
part Of the fifteenth century az a present 10
his daughter Catherine, on her marriage
with Henry v. of England, and then suo-
cessively owned by Henry ", Henry VI,
Henry VII. and Henry VIII. In l545 it was
stolen from the royal hereditary library
and was sold to a monastery in Belgium,
where il remained more than two centuries.
Its next appearance was in Paris in 1879.
when il brought 70 1000 franc at the second
sale al the library OF Ambrose Firmin-
Didot, the French printer-bibliophile. Fon-
tame, the purchaser, resold IL for 1901 900
francs to the Countess Mniszeck. Balzac's
s~tepdaughter; and at her death, in 1887, il
was secured by Mrs. Pope.
u is now in the possession Of Robert Hoe.
The Illustrations Of this beautifully written
and exquisitely illuminated missal. which
has been the property Of four English
sovereigns Of the Tudor race, include l07
tull page miniatures, 42S smaller ones,
ornamental borders, initials. &c, the whole
executed by ~Burgundian artists.
A special collection Of English first edi-
tons Of the last century comprised with
Few exceptions the rarest works Of every
noted author from Matthew Arnold's