Oct 27, 2020 - Sale 2549

Sale 2549 - Lot 69

Price Realized: $ 1,250
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 700 - $ 900
Hoym, Karl Heinrich, Graf von (1694-1736)
Catalogus librorum bibliothecae illustrissimi viri Caroli Henrici, comitis de Hoym, olim regis poloniae Augusti II.

Paris: Gabrielem & Claudium Martin, 1738.

First edition, octavo, with estimates and prices added by hand throughout; bound in contemporary French calf, rebacked; C.E. Rappaport Libri Rari of Rome's ticket inside front board; bookplate of the John Shaw Billings Memorial Fund; contents with some spotting, 8 x 5 in.

Hoym's life came to a tragic end when he committed suicide in jail after a series of trumped up charges including disloyalty to the throne, impregnating his own niece, and treason. As Saxon envoy to the Court of Versailles, he succeeded in making friends and cultivating an impressive collection of rare books, old master paintings, Chinese porcelains, bronzes, and more. After his death, his book collection was to be sold for the benefit of his heirs. Gabriel Martin, the Parisian bookseller responsible for the catalog and sale of the collection, mentions several important highlights, including Hoym's 1462 Latin Bible on vellum, the works of Aldrovani, Ptolemy's 1462 Cosmographia, and works printed by Aldus Manutius, Junta, Gryphius, Estienne, Froben, Plantin, and others. If no buyer for the entire collection came forward before the first of April, everything was to be sold at auction.