the book collector
seller who was a friend of the Greer family recalled that they were understandably reticent to talk about how they let the Bay Psalm Book slip through their hands and missed the discovery of a lifetime. Yet without the title page there was nothing obvious to identify the seventeenth century volume of Psalms as something special, let alone unique – especially since an owner of the book had inscribed his name and ‘Glasgow’ which would misdirect the reader to suspect that it was a bibliographically uninteresting edition of the Scottish Psalter . 4 Having purchased this unidentified edition of The Book of Psalms , James Weatherup’s first task was a careful examination of the book in order to discover any distinguishing features which might deter- mine its date and printer. A small card in Weatherup’s hand survives from this period. On it he sets out his initial identification evidence for the book as a series of points: wants title page Preface ** **2 **3 (4 leaves 7 pp.) (should be 6 leaves ? psalm psalme 4to old mor ? preface leaves stained pp1 unpaged No of leaves – psalms) An admonition to the Reader on last page Errata leaf at end – entitled – Faults escaped in Printing – pages not numbered (135 + Errata = 136) Signature D wanting pp8 16 verses 35 to end missing + Psalms 19 . 20 . 21 + part of 22 5 A comparison between the card and the consolidated version of the identification list in the letter sent to Rosenbach o V ering it for sale shows that this card recorded Weatherup’s initial investigation of the book he had just purchased and was the evidence he used to confirm his discovery that he now owned a copy of the Bay Psalm Book . 4 . ‘James Lawrence, Glasgow’ according to The Bay Psalm Book Sotheby’s Auction Catalogue New York 26 November 2013 . 5 . This card and the extracts from the correspondence of James Weatherup recorded below are from the collection of Anthony S. Drennan.
744
Made with FlippingBook Online newsletter