Bidspirit auction | BESTERMAN (Theodore). OLD ART BOOKS

BESTERMAN (Theodore). OLD ART BOOKS Collected and Catalogued by Theodore Besterman. London. 1975. - BESTERMAN (Theodore) OLD ART BOOKS Collected and Catalogued by Theodore Besterman . London: Maggs Bros. Ltd., 1975. xiv, 118, [2] pp., 1 frontispício desdobrável, 149 est. (algumas desdobráveis): il.; 420 mm. First edition, in a luxury print run limited to 300 numbered copies signed by the author, of this catalog of the personal collection of rare art books assembled by Theodore Besterman (London, 1904 - Geneva, 1976), one of the most eminent systematic bibliographers of the 20th century, founder of the Voltaire Institute in Geneva and author of the monumental World Bibliography of Bibliographies. The catalogued collection comprises 381 books illustrating the arts, all first editions and all predating 1700, collected by Besterman in less than a decade through the London bookstore EP Goldschmidt & Co. The chronological and thematic scope was defined by Besterman himself in the preface: ”My collection of books illustrative of the arts is limited to those composed before 1700, because the aim has been to identify the printed sources of Western art.” Each entry includes a complete transcription of the frontispiece, a full collation, and the location of other known copies. The 149 plates reproduce notable frontispieces and pages from the catalogued books. The subsequent fate of the collection adds interest to this publication: Besterman donated the collection to the Taylorian Library in Oxford, but the bequest was contested by his widow after his death in 1976; in 1983-1984, the collection was sold to EP Goldschmidt & Co. to satisfy the widow's wishes, with most of the works being acquired by the research library of the Getty Museum in Malibu (now the Getty Research Institute), where they are kept. Rare and prized. ⚑ Auto-translated via Google Translate