The Wardington Library: Important Atlases & Geographies. Part One: A-K - Part Two: L-Z. [2 vols, complete set]

Sotheby's

Published by Sotheby's, London, 2005

About this Item

2 volumes, 4to (27.5 cm), 344 pp; 368 pp. Publisher's cloth (minor shelf-wear).The two-part sale catalogue for the dispersal of the remarkable atlas collection formed by Lord Wardington (1924?2005), described by Rodney Shirley in his introduction as "the finest collection in private hands." Part One (A?K, lots 1?244) was sold on Tuesday 18 October 2005; Part Two (L?Z, lots 245?562 in two sessions) on Tuesday 10 October 2006, both at Sotheby's, 34?35 New Bond Street, London. With an appreciation of Lord Wardington by Andrew Phillips, Honorary Secretary of the Friends of the British Library (of which Lord Wardington served as Chairman, Vice-President, and President), and a memoir by Lord Wardington himself describing his lifelong passion for maps and atlases from childhood. An introductory essay on the history of cartography by Rodney Shirley (author of The Mapping of the World) discusses the scope and significance of the collection, which comprised over 650 atlases containing some 60,000 maps, spanning from the 1477 Bologna Ptolemy to atlases of the late twentieth century, and notable throughout for fine contemporary hand-colouring, distinguished provenances (including royal libraries of Belgium, Great Britain, Hanover, Spain and Sweden; Chatsworth; Pierpont Morgan; Harrison Horblit; and many others), and early or specially commissioned bindings. The catalogue entries, each with colour illustration, include the opening lot of Pieter van der Aa's Nouveau théâtre du monde (Leiden, 1713), numerous Blaeu and Janssonius atlases, Dutch sea-atlases by Colom, Doncker, Goos, and De Wit in fine contemporary colouring, Ortelius Theatrum orbis terrarum in multiple editions, Mercator's Atlas, Saxton's Atlas of England and Wales (1579), Speed's Theatre of the Empire, the "Doria Atlas" of c. 1570s (lot 143), and a vast range of Ptolemaic, national, maritime, celestial, and thematic atlases. Part Two includes a full index, index of notable provenances, and bibliography.

Seller Inventory # 008079

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Wardington Library: Important Atlases & Geographies. Part One: A-K - Part Two: L-Z. [2 vols, complete set]
• Publisher: Sotheby's, London
• Publication Date: 2005
• Language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: Fine
• Seller catalogs:
  • Auction catalogues
  • Cartography
  • BIBLIOGRAPHY