Imprimerie

‘I can’t really afford even a guinea for a book’: Hugh Williamson Oxford University Press book designer. Autograph Letter Signed to London bookseller Andrew Block describing his collecting interests and constraints and giving a wants list .

24141 — Undated; on letterhead of the Oxford University Press Warehouse and Trade Department London. See Nicolas Barker’s typically-elegant obituary of Williamson in the Independent. 2pp 4to. The obituary of the recipient Andrew Block 1892-1987 in ‘The Private Library’ was subtitled ‘the doyen of booksellers’; his business was established in 1911. On aged and worn paper; folded three times. Signed ‘Hugh Williamson:’ and addressed to ‘Mr Block’. Thirty-one lines in a close calligraphic hand. Having been ‘particularly lucky’ every time he has called on Block and having acquired ‘the 12mo Baskerville the Pickering in Caslon’s types and the plays printed by John Bell’ on his last visit he asks him to ‘keep an eye open for one or two cheap items’. Before giving a list of books he ‘particularly’ needs from the Aldine Press to Baskerville he describes his interest ‘in the development of roman and italic types which means that most of the books I need were printed before the end of the 18th century. On the other hand I can’t really afford even a guinea for a book unless it’s the kind of thing I could sell again for as much as I gave in case of need. The result is that I’m willing to put up with bad condition in the binding missing plates and text pages etc which might put off the “proper†collector.’ Undated; on letterhead of the Oxford University Press Warehouse and Trade Department, London. unknown