Chapter IX

At the Auction-Rooms--Their Changeable Temperature--My
Finds in Wellington Street--Certain Conclusions as to the
Rarity of Old English Books--Curiosities of Cataloguing and
Stray Lots--A Little Ipswich Recovery--A Narrow Escape for
some Very Rare Volumes in 1865--A Few Remarkable Instances
of Good Fortune for Me--Not for Others--Three Very Severe
'Frosts'--A Great Boom--Sir John Fenn's Wonderful Books at
last brought to Light--An Odd Circumstance about One of
Them--The Writer moralises--A Couple of Imperfect Caxtons
bring £2900--The Gentlemen behind the Scene and Those at
the Table--Books converted into _Vertu_--My Intervention on
One or Two Occasions--The Auctioneers' World--The
'Settlement' Principle--My Confidence in Sotheby's as
Commission Agents--My Three _Sir Richard Whittingtons_--_A
Reductio ad Absurdum_--The House in Leicester Square and
Its Benefactions in My Favour--Change from the Old Days--
Unique A.B.C.'s and Other Early School Books--the Somers
Tracts--Mr Quaritch and His Bibliographical Services to
Me--His Independence of Character--The British Museum--My
Resort to It for My Venetian Studies Forty Years Ago--The
Sources of Supply in the Printed Book Department--My Later
Attitude toward It as a Bibliographer--The Vellum
Monstrelet and Its True History--Bookbinders--Leighton,
Riviere, Bedford, Pratt--Horrible Sight which I witnessed
at a Binder's--My Publishers--Dodsley's Old Plays--My Book
on the Livery Companies of London--Presentation-Copies, 150

CHAPTER X

As an Amateur--Old China--Dr Diamond of Twickenham--
Unfavourable Results of His Tutorship--My Adventure at
Lowestoft--Alderman Rose--I turn over a New Leaf--Morgan--
His Sale to Me of Various Objects--The Seventeenth Century
Dishes--The Sèvres Tray of 1773--The Pair of Japanese
Dishes--Blue and White--Hawthorn--The Odd Vase--My Finds at
Hammersmith--Mr Sanders of Chiswick and his Chelsea China--
Gale--The Ruby-backed Eggshell--A Recollection of Ralph
Bernal--Buen Retiro and Capo di Monte--Reynolds of Hart
Street--The Wedgewood Teapot--The _Rose du Barri_ Vases--My
Bowls--An Eccentric Character and His Treasures--
Reminiscences of Midhurst and Up Park--The Zurich Jug and
My Zurich Visitor--The Diamond Sale, 188

CHAPTER XI

The Stamp Book--A Passing Taste--Dr Diamond again--An
Establishment in the Strand--My Partiality for Lounging--
One of My Haunts and Its Other Visitors--Our Entertainer
Himself--His Principals Abroad--The _Cinque Cento_ Medal--
Canon Greenwell--Mr Montagu--Story of a Dutch Priest--My
Experience of Pictures--The Stray Portrait recovered after
Many Years--The Two Wilson Landscapes--Sir Joshua's
Portrait of Richard Burke--Hazlitt's Likeness of Lamb--The
Picture Market and Some of Its Incidence--Story of a
Painting--Plate--The Rat-tailed Spoon--Dr Diamond smitten--
The Hogarth Salver--The Edmund Bury Godfrey and
Blacksmiths' Cups--Irish Plate--Danger of Repairing or
Cleaning Old Silver--The City Companies' Plate, 215

CHAPTER XII

Coins--Origin of My Feeling for Them--Humble Commencement--
Groping in the Dark--My Scanty Means and Equally Scanty
Knowledge, but Immense Enthusiasm and Inflexibility of
Purpose--The Maiden Acquisition Sold for Sixteenpence--The
Two Earliest Pieces of the New Departure--To whom I first
went--Continuity of Purchases in All Classes--Visit to
Italy (1883)--My Eyes gradually opened--Count Papadopoli
and Other Numismatic Authorities--My Sketch of the Coins of
Venice published (1884)--Casual Additions to the Collection
and Curious Adventures--Singular Illusions of the
Inexperienced--Anecdotes of a Relative--Two Wild
Money-Changers Tamed--Captain Hudson--The Auction-Thief--A
Small Joke to be pardoned, 235