Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Antiquarian Books and libraries

Antiquarian Books :: ILAB-LILA :: International League of Antiquarian Booksellers:

"The International League of Antiquarian Booksellers federates 20 National Associations of Antiquarian Booksellers. It speaks for 20 national associations, 30 countries, and nearly 2000 leading booksellers throughout the world. Its emblem stands for integrity and professionalism in the rare book trade. The League publishes and upholds a code of ethics based on the wide experience of all its national associations."


after "John Cheese" Watkins - Google Search I found:-

J.C. Watkins.:; Autograph note signed to an unnamed bookseller.: "Abergavenny, 9 March 1802. John Cheese Watkins, bookseller. Two pages, 8vo, ragged edges (perhaps some loss), text readable. ' of the within being forwarded at a certainty [inserted phrase ] by the Coach from the - which leaves London either on Friday night or Saturday morning early --- & which will greatly oblige . . .' On verso a list: '[tick] A new Common Place Book properly ruled throughout, with a complete Skeleton Index--2nd edn p[r?]ice 6/-/ [not ticked] The Insolvent Poor Act-- (not ye Debtors')/ [tick] 2 Melroes Cookery --1/6 ed--/ [tick] Peakes' [sic] Law of Evidence --/ [tick] Houles' [sic] Tassos Jerusalem [superscript] 12mo or 8vo--/[tick] 4 Monthly Reviews for Feby--/ [tick] Do -- Do Jany--/ [tick] 1 Anti-Jacobin -- Feby [underlined]/ [tick] 1 British Critic -- Jany [underlined]/ [tick] 1 Lady's Mage -- Do [Jany]/ [tick] 1 Evangelical Jany, Feby--Mar--/ [tick] 1<> for Jany [underlined]/ [tick] Do ------March [underlined]/ [tick] No 2& 3 - Halls' [sic] Encyclopaedia/ [not ticked] 3 Setts of Cooke's Don Quizote 6d Nos [underlined from '6'].' Second and last not ticked i.e not supplied prob."

Watkins' Circulating Library 1801 Abergavenny, Monouthshire
[John Cheese Watkins] 1801-38.

Deaths Dec 1838
WATKINS John Cheese Abergavenny 26 3
in 1841 census a farmer:-
Deaths Dec 1873
Watkins John Cheese 72 Pontypool 11a 114
from
FreeBMD - Search
and see
Home Page of THE PERSONAL WEBSITE OF Robin Alston:

"The Library History Database should have been transferred last summer to the Institute of English Studies in the School of Advanced Study, University of London. Delays due to building works at Senate House mean that the transfer will not now take place until 2007. In the mean time I am, as usual, happy to incorporate amendments and additions.

I started this database in my spare time while I was still Director of the School of Library & Information Studies at University College. It began life as a tool for my students in Historical Bibliography, and developed while setting up the History of the Book M.A. at London University, now a successful and thriving program within the Institute of English Studies.

When the Cambridge University Press responded warmly to my suggestion that there ought to be a Cambridge History of Libraries in Britain and Ireland I laboured for two years to make the database a really useful tool for library historians for the period up to 1850.
There will a multi-volume history of libraries in Britain and Ireland, under the general editorship of Peter Hoare, who I invited to become Editor many years ago. The three volumes were published together in December 2006. I am currently engaged on a substantial review article for The Library on this much-awaited publishing project.

The pressure of completing my Bibliography of the English Language
1958-2007
by the year 2008 has made it increasingly difficult to devote the time needed to keep the database updated: since 1997 I have had many hundreds of emails and letters requiring extensive additions to be made to the LHD; and every time a new book on library history is published its contents must be scanned and incorporated. I will, therefore, hand over the responsibility for keeping the LHD updated to the Institute of English Studies sometime in 2006. The date of the transfer, when known, will be noted on this page and the appropriate link provided on the LHD Home Page.

Friends (and well-wishers) throughout the world write to me for news as to what makes my life “tick” after all the years spent in so many occupations. I have therefore added a section to this website called “BITS & PIECES”. Of course we all know what a bit is … Notwithstanding the pleasant mixture of work, challenge, and fun which I now enjoy in this little bit of paradise, my work continues to supply me with fascinating discoveries.

I am trying to arrange a celebration of the completion of the Bibliography on midsummer day – June 21 - in 2010. I am hoping that a personal celebration with invited guests will take place in the Wren Library at Trinity College, which is where, in a very real sense, it all began in earnest. Three supporters – and subsequently great friends – gathered in the Wren on midsummer day 1961 to consider how best to provide this enterprise with what is commonly called a “kick start”. This homely jargon does little justice to the wonderful support I got from John Oates, Tim Munby, and Herbert Adams who opened doors on three continents as if by magic. I am hoping that the private celebration might be part of a larger even to review the past and suggest directions for the future of English language studies.

The three volumes of The Cambridge History of Libraries in Britain – which I started a long time ago – finally appeared late in 2006. I am working my way through the 2000+ pages and hoping to incorporate new material for the Library History Database which urgently needs updating since the proposal to mount and take care of it in the Institute of English Studies at London University has had to be postponed yet again because of building work in Senate House. I have a huge backlog of material to incorporate! I am a little disappointed that not a single contributor to Volumes I and II (covering the period to 1850) has mentioned the LHD! Still … several hundred scholars on five continents have used it regularly, so it can’t be all that useless! My review of the three published volumes appeared in The Library, Volume 8, Number 1, September 2007, pp. [325]-336.

John Jolliffe on Stone Age Thinking at the Speed of Light.


Courtesy of David Helliwell (Bodleian Library) I published the text of a paper given by John Jolliffe in America at Terry Belanger’s Book Arts Press on March 17, 1983. John’s widow (Beryl) has given permission for this lecture to be reproduced on this website. John’s title (mischievous as always) was: “Stone Age thinking at the speed of light.” For those who feel that computers and libraries are not entirely a good thing, it makes refreshing reading. It is reproduced in Bits and Pieces..

CURRICULUM VITAE of Robin Carfrae Alston: "Born: Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, West Indies. 29/01/33. . . .
Since retiring from London University in 1998 completed research on the history of libraries in the British Isles to 1850, incorporated in a large Website entitled The Library History Database, with evidence for the existence of over 27,000 public and private libraries.
The database is consulted in numerous countries and is the largest resource of its kind available on the Web. [Address: www.r-alston.co.uk/index.htm].

Volume XIII of the Bibliography of the English Language was published in April 1999,
Volume XIV in April 2000;
Volume XV in April 2001;
Volume XVI (two volumes) in April 2002.
Volume XVII (two volumes) in 2003;
Volume XVIII (in 9 volumes) 2004-2006;
Volume XIX (two volumes) 2007.
Volumes XX-XXII in preparation.
"

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