The Michael Sadleir Collection of 19th Century Fiction

Condition & Rarity: Sadleir's Collecting Criteria

Gordon Ray, in his review of Sadleir’s XIX Century Fiction: A Bibliographical Record Based on His Own Collection, writes:

Mr. Sadleir’s fellow collectors, interested in the books themselves rather than the use that can be made of them will be most impressed by the standard of condition which he has maintained. His insistence on “really fine copies” in original binding has rarely wavered, and the result is a collection that with respect to condition could not now be duplicated even by a collector of Mr. Sadleir’s stature. Remembering the revelation that these books were to me when I saw them on Mr. Sadleir’s shelves, I am particularly glad to learn from Professor Bradford Booth that they may once again be seen in the library of the University of California at Los Angeles, where they have found a permanent home. These 8,500 volumes...provide a dazzling coup d’oeil. The gray or drab boards of the earlier part of the century, the multi-colored and multi-textured cloths of the later years, and the long runs of “yellow-backs” and fiction in series make a display which cannot be matched anywhere in the world.

[Sadleir was a collector] who was never content with a shabby copy, no matter how rare, but who relentlessly sought out perfect specimens of the printer’s and the binder’s art. —Bradford Booth

Of his collecting proclivities, Sadleir in his Preface pays tribute to his friend Richard Jennings, from whom he learned that “condition is three-quarters of the battle for any fine collection...and I was fortunate enough to begin collecting while really fine copies could—with assiduity and intelligence—still be found.”

The spine of Barrington [1394] by Charles Lever, published by Chapman & Hall in 1863.

The illustrated examples of books in perfect condition are all from the Sadleir Collection in UCLA Special Collections. In the captions for the illustrations in this exhibit, The Sadleir Collection Number follows the title.

The front cover of Barrington [1394]

...as to me, [I am one of those] who love three volumes of a novel for their very spacing and ornate expansiveness, who find shelves of cloth or labelled triplets more beautiful than any other shelves, to whom, in short, the collecting and reading of Victorian first editions is romance and quiet happiness. —Michael Sadleir

Sadleir appreciated the quality and variety of decorative endpapers in the Victorian period. Phantastes by George MacDonald illustrates beautiful end papers and also shows two bookplates, one of Sadleir’s own, the other designed for the University.

Phantastes: A Faerie Romance [1479a] by George MacDonald, illustrated edition published by Chatto & Windus in 1894.

Wormwood, a triple-decker by Marie Corelli, with its pristine red satin ribbons wrapping the spine, illustrates Sadleirs’s belief that “condition is three-quarters of the battle for any fine collection…”

Wormwood [630] by Marie Corelli, a Richard Bently and Son edition, published in 1890.

The yellow-back was the Victorian forerunner to the modern paperback: cheap, portable, and paper-covered—perhaps to be read on a trip and then tossed aside. The Heathcotes by James Fenimore Cooper, a yellow-back in pristine condition, represents the standard Sadleir applied even to his yellow-back collection.

The Heathcotes, or the Wept of Wishton Wish [3489 6] by James Fenimore Copper, published by Routledge in 1854.

The depth of Sadleir’s collection is striking, shown are three examples of one novel, the first and second editions of Michael Scott’s Tom Cringle’s Log, by the same publisher, each in a different publisher’s cloth binding and all in mint condition.

Tom Cringle’s Log From left to right the volumes are: [3040] in the simple binding published by Blackwood in 1833; [3040a] a more elaborate binding with an anchor and cable design in gold also published by Blackwood in 1833; and [3040b] the anchor design is repeated with less gusto on the spine of the second edition by Blackwood in 1834.

Another component of Sadleir’s collection is the fiction series. A series might comprise the works of a popular writer such as W. Harrison Ainsworth , or a selection of favorite standards mixed with a few new novels, as in the Readable Books series. The volumes were inexpensive and published over a period of time thus enabling the reader of modest means to assemble a “library.”

Tales of Mystery, Imagination and Humour and Poems [3659-1] by Edgar Allen Poe, published by Vizetelly in 1852, a part of the Readable Books series along with Windsor Castle by W. Harrison Ainsworth published by Chapman and Hall as a part of the “His Works” series, in 1850.

Page updated

Google Sites

Report abuse