B is for Bookseller
By GROENEWEGEN, Johannes; and Abraham Van der HOECK , 1715
Sold

This Book is to be sold by J: Groenewegen &: A: vander Hoeck

Ephemera
  • Author: GROENEWEGEN, Johannes; and Abraham Van der HOECK
  • Publication place: [London],
  • Publisher: in the Strand,
  • Publication date: [1715-1728]
  • Physical description: Etched bookplate
  • Dimensions: 130 by 80mm. (5 by 3.25 inches).
  • Inventory reference: 17839

Notes

Featuring a bust of Horace this bookplate was used by Groenewegen and Van der Hoeck from 1715 to 1728. Booksellers in the Strand, they also offered a series of fixed price book auctions in partnership with Pierre Gosse between 1721 and 1726. These were almost exclusively of composed of Continental books, shipped from Holland by Gosse. They had a reputation for deception and sharp dealing, marking up their book prices by at least one hundred times, and offering a "hotch-potch" selection of books, as if from a single eminent library. A contemporary description of the outfit, reported by Katherine Swift: "Mr. van Hoeck, a Dutch man, who Sell's Books in the Strand, brought to my Lord a small parcel of modern Manuscripts with a List & their lowest Prices; which proved so abominably wicked that he was sent away with them immediately; and without any part of the Animadversion which he deserved".

Bibliography

  1. BM Heal 17.59
  2. Met 26.28.566
  3. Swift, 'Dutch Penetration of the London Market for Books c1690-1730', 1990

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