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Show TO COME TO AMERICA. The Flout Private Library In the World About to Be Sold. For some time past it has been rumored ru-mored that the famous Althorp library, which Dibdin called the finest private collection in .the world, was about to be sold, and now the announcement is made upon authority, says the St. James' Gazette. It is hoped to sell it en bloc, but should that not be possible it will be put up at auction. Selling the most famous of the world's private libraries in a lump can mean only one thing selling it to America. We trust that may not happen, since Lord Spencer's collection contains many volumes vol-umes which it is national pride to possesssuch, pos-sesssuch, for instance as the famous Valdarfar "Boccaccio," which Lord Blandford wrested from the second Earl Spencer for 2,260, to be ultimately ultimate-ly bought for Althorp for the bagatelle of 750. It will be an epoch-making sale, for this great library contains some 50,000 volumes, mostly priceless. Scarce editions on vellum and large paper, magnificent printing, and dazzling daz-zling bindings by Pasdeloup and Eoger Payne these are its glories. Many of the books, too, have famous histories. They have felt the touch of the Pompadour Pompa-dour or of Diane de Poitiers, or the elegant ele-gant grasp of Francis I. There are eighty-two out of th,e ninety-nine known productions of Caxton, to say nothing of the famous Mentz Psalter, a copy of which has fetched 5,000. To sell the Althorp library, indeed, is almost al-most as though we were to sell the rarest rarities of the printed book department de-partment of the British museum. |