The Law Society of England and Wales is proceeding with the break-up of the Mendham Collection of 5,000 pre-1850 books (and some manuscripts), formerly on loan to Canterbury Cathedral Library and the University of Kent.
It was formed by Joseph Mendham (1769-1856), Church of England clergyman at Sutton Coldfield, and was publicly acknowledged by the Law Society to constitute ‘a unique collection of Catholic and anti-Catholic literature’.
Following the auction of 142 lots at Sotheby’s in London on 5 June 2013, 339 lots are now being offered for sale at Bloomsbury Auctions at 11 a.m. on 20 March 2014 (with viewing on 18 and 19 March and immediately before the sale).
Most of the lots have estimates of under or just over £1,000, but a handful are more expensive, the most expensive (£4,000-6,000) being lot 122, THE HOLY BULL, AND CRUSADO OF ROME (1588), bound with three other works, which gives an account of the Spanish Armada.
The Bloomsbury catalogue is online at:
http://www.bloomsburyauctions.com/cms/pages/lots/36123
The dismemberment of this historic religious collection is proceeding notwithstanding the strong public campaign against it in 2012-13, co-ordinated by the University of Kent, and a high-level legal challenge to the Law Society’s unfettered rights over the collection.
On a brighter note, the British Library has recently acquired, with external funding, the hybrid manuscript/print treatise on the marriage of priests, from the mid-1550s, which was export-stopped by the Government, as mentioned on the RAG listserv on 25 October 2013. This was one of the lots in the Sotheby’s auction of Mendham Collection items, and had gone to a foreign buyer.
Dr Clive D Field, OBE
email: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
webpage: http://clivedfield.wordpress.com/
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