 | |  |
VI.
Harry Buxton Forman acquired a copy of The New Timon — or placed it, bound, upon his shelves — on 25 September 1899, when he wrote his initials and the date within it. There was an example in the Dodd, Mead set of Tennyson's works which Livingston described, with the aid of advance proofs of Wise's Bibliography, in 1901. A gap of almost twenty years separates these two dates from the next appearance of an example, in the sale of Part I of Buxton Forman's library in March 1920, when the first copy mentioned above sold for $410. At the sale of the second part of the library, in April, a second copy of The New Timon sold for $250. In 1921 the Huntington Library acquired a copy from Quaritch, Yale obtained a copy from an unrecorded source, and Lord Esher bought a copy, no doubt in London. In 1922 Cornell purchased an example; at some time prior to 1923 A. C. Chapin, who was to bequeath his library to Williams College, bought a copy through Lathrop C. Harper.[49] Not until 1926-1927 did any copies, other than Buxton Forman's, appear in the auction rooms; then two were sold, and another in 1930, and a third in 1932; after the last year, one must remember, the Depression damped down the trade in rare books. In or before the later 1930's an example was bought by Wesleyan University (Middletown, Connecticut); in 1939 a copy was sold at auction; in 1945 a copy was bought by the University of Michigan from Quaritch. One further example was sold at Sotheby's in 1946.
This narrative is somewhat surprising, for Wise had remarked in 1908 (II,21) that
As most of the known copies appeared subsequent to the sale of Buxton Forman's library, it seemed conceivable that after Forman's death his son, Maurice Buxton Forman, might have released one of those small parcels of pamphlets that his father had long been in the habit of "salting down," as he termed it. Since, as I have been informed, Mr Mudie of Quartch's, together with Wise, made the probate valuation of Forman's library, and since the firm of Quaritch sold examples of The New Timon in 1921 and 1945, it seemed natural to ask them whether they had, in fact, bought a small batch of copies from the younger Buxton Forman about 1920. In a courteous and candid reply, of 22 January 1963, Mr A. R. Newton of Bernard Quaritch Ltd. wrote, in part,
One need not say that, whatever the provenance of their first eight examples, Quaritch purchased and sold them in entire good faith. In view of the extremely slender record of the pamphlet, it seems clear that the firm must have obtained a "remainder" from someone. Mr Newton's letter provides no distinct evidence to connect the remainder with Maurice Buxton Forman, and any suggestion that he was its source must here be explicitly withdrawn. The available data concerning The New Timon may be arranged as follows:
- (1) Buxton Forman's first copy: "full [green] levant morocco, Jansen style, inside dentelles, uncut, by Riviere"; according to his pencilled note, acquired (?or shelved) on 25 September 1899; sold with his library at the Anderson Galleries (Part I, #865) on 15 March 1920; then or later obtained by C. T. Crocker; presented in the Crocker Collection to the University of Virginia in 1961.
- (2) Buxton Forman's second copy: "sewn, uncut, in slip case";
?also acquired in 1899; sold with his library at the Anderson Galleries (Part
II, #1089) on 26 April 1920.? Resold at the Am. Art Assoc. Galleries, sale
of Thomas Ogden Amelia (#192), on 27 October 1930; "stitched, in half
red morocco case." ? Acquired by Connecticut Wesleyan "in
139the late 1930's": "paper, uncut, enclosed in red case with morocco back" [MS addition to the library's copy of the printed catalogue card, by courtesy of the librarian]; subsequently stolen.
- (3) T. J. Wise's copy, described in the advance proofs of his Bibliography, which were consulted by L. S. Livingston in or before 1901; Ashley Library VII (1925) 139: "bound in red levant morocco by Riviere"; now in the British Museum.
- (4) Dodd, Mead & Co.'s copy, obtained in or before 1901: "stitched, uncut"; purchased by George H. Richmond and by him sold to J. P. Morgan in 1904; now in red leather solander case, uniform with most of the Morgan Tennysons.
- (5) [1] Huntington copy, bought in 1921 from Quaritch: "stitched, without wrappers."
- (6) [2] Yale copy, acquired in 1921 from an unrecorded source: "stitched and uncut."
- (7) [3] Harvard copy; acquired by Lord Esher in 1921, according to his pencilled note; obtained by Harvard at Sotheby's in 1946: "stitched, without binding or wrapper"; still partly unopened.
- (8) [4] Cornell copy, bought in 1922; condition when acquired not recorded; since acquisition, bound by the library.
- (9) [5] Copy acquired by J. A. Spoor (1851-1926); sold with his library, which had been held in storage since his death, at the Parke-Bernet Galleries (Part II, #1003) on 4 May 1939; "stitched, uncut, small stain on upper margin of title-page, in a half green levant morocco solander case."
- (10) [6] Williams copy, purchased for A. C. Chapin before 1923 by Lathrop C. Harper: "sewed, uncut, [partly unopened,] in cloth folder, [brown quarter-] morocco slip case" — bracketed information by the courtesy of the Custodian of the Chapin Library.
- (11) [7] Copy sold at the Am. Art Assoc. Galleries in a miscellaneous sale (#897) on 23 November 1926: "sewn, uncut, enclosed in quarter red morocco slip case and inner cloth folder." ?? Sold at Hodgson's, as the property of John Drinkwater, on 25 May 1932 (#127): "stitched." ? Sold by Quaritch to Michigan in 1945: "stitched."
- (12) [8] Copy sold at the Am. Art Assoc. Galleries in the sale of the library of Major W. van R. Whittall (#1279) on 14 February 1927: "stitched and uncut, as issued in quarter brown levant morocco slip case, inner cloth wrapper"; then or later acquired by Owen D. Young, who bequeathed it to the Berg Collection in 1941.
The New Timon:
Though some of the details are speculative, as they have been marked, the table shows that in 1899-1901 The New Timon is recorded only in connection with Wise and (no doubt through Wise) with Forman
One is not surprised to discover that the text of the poems is set in Miller and Richards 17 Long Primer, which Carter and Pollard designated as "C" and identified in eleven forgeries (Enquiry, pp. 67, 379). It is of some importance to note that the type dissociates the pamphlet from the "First Pirated Edition" of The Lover's Tale, for that is printed in Clay's Long Primer No. 3, which Carter and Pollard designated as "A"; had the two productions been printed in the same type, it would have been fairly probable that they were printed at the same time, in some conjunction of purposes. As it is, the "First Pirated Edition" must have been produced before 1894, when the firm of Clay shifted from type "A" to type "C" (Enquiry, p. 64); and The New Timon must have been produced (assuming that Clay's produced it, like the rest of Wise's forgeries) in 1894 or later.
Of the display types in the pamphlet, it may suffice here to remark that the first line on the titlepage of The New Timon is set in the same type as the word "London" on the titlepage of William Morris, The Two Sides of the River, a possible forgery; and similarly, the fifth line on the same titlepage (i.e., "with other omitted") is set in the same type as the word "by" on the Morris titlepage.
The paper consists of almost exactly two-thirds esparto and one-third chemical wood. Esparto had been introduced into papermaking in 1861. Chemical wood was first produced in Sweden, in 1874; the English imports were 485 tons in 1874, less than a thousand tons in 1875, and slightly over a thousand tons in 1876.[50] It is therefore impossible that the 32-page pamphlet of minor poems and The New Timon were printed in 1870. It is possible that they were printed in 1876, but very unlikely. A much later date seems indicated.
Though the evidence of the paper, the types, and the known history of The New Timon does not provide an absolute proof that the pamphlet was produced by Wise, and (therefore) that the associated 32-page pamphlet of minor poems was also his work, the circumstances blend too well with the known facts of Wise's career to leave room for serious doubt. The argument may be said to lead to a virtual certainty.
In the succeeding pages Wise's responsibility for both pamphlets will be assumed, for the sake of brevity.
| | |