The Earliest Printed Depiction of a Book Auction

(London, 1700). Engraving on laid paper. Scattered spotting; scattered short repaired tears along edges. 11 1/4 x 7 7/8 in. (286 x 200 mm). In 19th-century frame, 14 5/8 x 11 1/4 in. (371 x 286 mm). British Museum, Personal and Political Satires 1415

A very rare engraving of the earliest printed depiction of a book auction. Engraved by London draughtsman Sutton Nicholls, the print shows an open air book auction in Moorfields, with a group of men and women perusing a table lined with dozens of soon-to-be auctioned books. Above the figures hangs a sign reading, "A Choice Collection of Books being the Library of the late famous Unborn Doctor, are to be put to Sale this Day, and to continue untill all be Sold...Cattalogues may be had at most of the eminent Booksellers in the four Quarters of Moorfeilds Gratis. the Books may be Seen before or at the time of Sale..." The books that line the stall's table show remarkable breadth, including esteemed works like Peter Heylyn's Cosmographie, to works of religious radicalism by Lodowicke Muggleton, censored works like Richard Head's The English Rogue, erotic works like the Play of Sodom, The School of Venus, or The Ladies Delight, and Aristotle's Masterpiece, as well as others like Thomas Middleton's The Family of Love, standard medical works of the period like Culpepper’s Compleat and Experience’d Midwife, and various titles including Don Quixote and John Ogilby's America. Below the image is a printed eight line satirical verse: "Come Sirs, and view this famous Library, 'Tis pity Learning shou'd discourag'd be: Here's Bookes (that is, if they were but well Sold) I will maintain't are worth their weight in Gold Then bid apace, and break me out of hand: Ne'er cry you don't the Subject understand: For this I'll say--howe'er the Case may hit, Whoever buys of me,-I teach 'em Wit."

Book auctions first gained popularity in 17th century Netherlands and Italy, with the first appearing in England in 1676. As Brian Cowan notes, this print reflects a satiric response to this emerging market, and was created to skewer "the pretensions to learning harbored by both the auctioneers and their many customers". As he explains, "the auction was a prominent target of satire because it offered such a public display of the buying and selling of precious objects that were thought to be outside the gritty realm of commerce." (Cowan, The Social Life of Coffee, 2008, pp. 141-142). This satiric nature is exhibited in the verse below the image, and is alluded to in the name of the collector whose books are to be auctioned, the so-called "Unborn Doctor". This name also appears in a contemporary engraved broadside, "The Speech of Waltho Van Claturbank" (1700), and whose usage appears "to have represented a not uncommon pretension of quacks at this period" (BM 1415).

Sutton Nichols (1668-1729) was an English draughtsman and engraver, active in London during the end of the 17th and early 18th century. Known for his bird's-eye views of London, he worked for map publishers such as Philip Lea, Robert Morden, Edward Wells, Henry Overton, Thomas and John Bowles and others.

Very rare. According to RBH, this is the only example sold at auction. We can locate only one institutional copy, in the British Museum.