Catalogue of the Books, Manuscripts and Engravings Belonging to William Menzies of New York -List of Prices..

New York: J. Sabin & Sons, 1876. From the Bart Auerbach Collection. Some chipping at edges and general wear, but fine. 8vo. List of prices bound in after title. Original printed wrappers, paper spine with title in manuscript (presumably done by Goelet when the price list was added). 2239 lots, priced in pencil. Ogden Goelet's copy, with his name and 1875 date on front wrapper. Laid in: ALS by Joseph Sabin to Goelet, 6 May 1877, two pages, 8vo, on Sabin & Sons letterhead, regarding the Rarities (Smith's Virginia, complete Bradford Club set, etc.); and with a list of lot numbers and figures. Among the lots that Goelet bought at the Menzies sale were Cotton Mather, 'The Wonders of the Invisible World', 1693 (lot 1351), Cadwallader Colden, 'The History of the Five Indian Nations', 1727 (lot 429) and Anne Bradstreet's 'The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung', 1650 (lot 225). McKay 2150. In the sale catalogue, Sabin states that the physical quality of the Menzies books surpasses that of any other collection handled by him during his entire career. "The sale underlined for the first time the importance of American printing and American authors... Menzies collecting career is well documented in the carefully produced catalog of his extraordinary library" (Dickinson, 'Dictionary of American Book Collectors', pp. 230-31). "Goelet was not a bibliographer, but he had two great advantages: immense wealth and the counsel of Joseph Sabin. With backing of that kind he was able to form one of the showpiece collections of the nineteenth century" (Dickinson, p. 139). A fine bibliophile association copy.