CATALOGUE No. 182 RARE BOOKS and MANUSCRIPTS mostly recently purchased from private sources AN UNUSUALLY FINE COLLECTION OF BOOKS BEAUTIFULLY BOUND EITHER IN CALF OR VELLUM BY EDWARDS OF HALIFAX A SIXTEENTH-CENTURY FLEMISH ALBUM AMICORUM WITH Fine specimens of books printed by Aldus, Baskerville, Bodoni, and other famous printers WIRES: OFFERED FOR SALE BY DULAU and COMPANY, LTD. 32 OLD BOND STREET LONDON, W.I [ESTABLISHED 1792] CHAUSCRIPT, PICCY, LONDON Libraries and smaller collections of books purchased for cash Books over twenty years old enter the United States of America free of duty DULAU'S A SHORT NOTE ABOUT OURSELVES 997 DET мо,182 THE firm of Dulau was founded in 1792 by the Abbé Dulau, a nephew of the Archbishop of Arles, and a refugee who came to London during the French Revolution. Choosing one of London's most fashionable quarters to establish his business, Dulau, after a few years in Wardour Street, moved to Soho Square, to a well-known house where Mrs. Bateman, the actress, had lived, and where, in 1793, she gave a party at which the Chevalier d'Eon fenced. In 1803, Mr. FitzJames, a ventriloquist, gave entertainments in Dulau's rooms, and, in 1804, M. Lenoir gave a series of French readings. Tickets of admission to the latter were half a guinea, "to admit two persons once or one person twice". At this period the term bookseller also connoted a publisher, and to this Dulau was no exception; he published foreign classics and works by famous contemporary authors. Dulau was one of Chateaubriand's first publishers, and was responsible for the production of the "Voyages d'Anarcharsis". It is gratifying to the present owners of the business to know that he employed to print many of his books both Bensley and Bulmer, two of the finest printers of the time. By 1812 Dulau had already achieved a measure of success which enabled F. S. Larpent, Judge-Advocate to Lord Wellington's Headquarters, to refer to him in his private journal (published in 1853) as "the great Mr. Dulau". In 1875, Frederick Justen, a native of Bonn, who had originally joined the firm as its German correspondent, became its sole proprietor. This Justen appears to have been an exceedingly able man and highly respected in the scientific world. He was a Fellow of the Linnean Society, and he it was who first directed the activities of the firm towards the literature of Natural History, a feature which has been of increasing importance in our history since that time. As might have been expected, in consideration of Justen's personal scientific activities, our principal interests in this direction are botanical. A long account of Justen, on his death in 1906, appeared in the "Journal of Botany" for the year 1907. He was responsible for at least two notable contributions to the nation's scientific treasures. The first was occasioned by the foundation of the Natural History Section of the British Museum at South Kensington. When this section was removed from Bloomsbury it was decided by the trustees that its library must not be moved with it. It, therefore, became necessary that a complete library of natural history should be furnished for the new building. Authority for the expenditure was obtained, and the firm of Dulau was given an entirely free hand to supply and install the library. Justen by no means confined his interest in this to its commercial aspect, and he frequently referred with pride to his considerable donations to the collection, the last being the magnificent "Codex Dioscorides". He also presented numerous drawings to the collection, which still exist at South Kensington. Even more important than this notable work were his services in securing for the National Herbarium the splendid set of Welwitsch's Angolan plants, which ranks among the most valuable of its contents. In 1873, Welwitsch directed in his will that the test set of these plants should be offered to the British Museum for purchase. The Portuguese Government, however, claimed the whole of the collections. Justen, who was one of the executors, resisted this demand, and at great personal pecuniary risk defended a suit in Chancery. This lasted for nearly |