An Unnoticed 1834 Auction Catalogue

Yesterday I discovered an apparently unrecorded catalogue for an auction held at Dulwich, south London, by "Mr Shuttleworth". The front page of the 4-leaf catalogue is shown above; it mentions:

"several very beautiful 'MISSAL DRAWINGS' [...] from the Papal Sacristy [...] by the celebrated Miniaturist, Buonfratelli [...]"

Following the descriptions of lots 38-43 is the note that they:

"were spoils from the Papal Sacristy of the Vatican, at the last entry of the French into Rome, and were brought to England by the Abbate Celotti"

Finding the catalogue at all was satisfying enough, because it fills a gap in the provenances of several of the most important ex-Celotti illuminations, including this:

But a considerable bonus is that the catalogue is extensively annotated, apparently by Thomas or Horatio Rodd, brothers and booksellers of 2 Great Newport St, London, who must have attended the sale.

At the bottom of the penultimate page, following the description of the first six ex-Celotti lots, is a note:

"These Six Drawings were all well framed with Plate Glass before them - it is impossible to say too much in their praise"

And at the bottom of the next page, the last of the catalogue, is a longer note which shows that Rodd thought it was not uncommon for an owner to hold a sort of false sale to find out how much people were willing to bid, and then use that information in the planning of a future sale. This is particularly interesting to me because it corroborates what I suggested (in this blogpost) may have happened in 1821 in the very first known auction of a selection of Celotti's illuminations.

The note reads:

"Some of these Drawings it will appear were knocked down at about the cost of the Frame and Glass. I considered from the selling of the First One they were being bo[ugh]^t in [1], & of course would not bid merely[?] for the sake of running these up - as it often happens when they come on again (I mean any sort of goods) after the first trial - the then price is a guide to the Owner"

In other words, Rodd thought that the first of this group of lots sold so cheaply (at £24 3s. -- whereas the bidding had reached £90 guineas in the 1825 Celotti sale) that it must have been "bought in" against a higher reserve price, and he refrained from bidding on the next six lots, which -- partly as a result of his abstention -- went for even lower prices.

Note

[1] "Bought in", usually abbreviated to "BI", is still the usual term in English-speaking auction-houses to refer to a lot that does not achieve the reserve price required by the consignor, and thus is effectively bought back by the auctioneer on behalf of the owner.