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the basement stacks, M.J. Long is the person whom we have to thank. Inge Feltrinelli was the widow of the publisher (most notably of Dr Zhivago and The Leopard ) and pseudo-revolutionary, Giangiacomo Feltrinelli. After he lost his life in March 1972 trying to modify the operation of an electricity pylon by night, it was she who kept the busi- ness going. That one sees in Italy bright, busy, encouraging bookshops under the banner of Editore Feltrinelli is largely her doing. edith sitwell and William Walton gave the first public performance of Façade there in 1923. Nicolas and Joanna Barker held the reception there after the marriage of their daughter Cecilia in 1989. The historic book collection of Erwin Tomash has now been sold there. So, great events only at the Aeolian Hall in Bloomfield Place, which is almost directly opposite Sotheby’s. Sotheby’s book department moved there from Bond Street in 1981. In 1998 it moved back to Bond Street and now, fittingly, it has returned to the site, which has been renamed Lower Grosvenor Gallery. During the interregnum the Aeolian Hall auction room was put to other uses, even though the books consigned for sale and all the sta V remained in Bloomfield Place. Rolling shelves were installed in a low-ceilinged viewing room on the ground floor in the main Bond Street building – so low that many of Sotheby’s taller auctioneers appeared to be crouching during the conduct of their sales. This was the saleroom scene for the twelve-session dispersal of the Macclesfield Library between 2004 and 2008. A designated books and manuscript saleroom had always been a factor of great importance for Sotheby’s, which originally made its mark as auctioneers of literary property beginning in 1744. Most recently, this designated saleroom was said to have played a part in the decision-making to hold the sale of the Franklin Brooke-Hitching Library there between 2014 and 2015. The present auction room is between one half and two thirds of its original dimensions. This allows for secure storage of the lots as they are sold and then made ready for collection by the purchasers in the re- maining space. Also, the smaller seating area than the 1981 – 1998 plan makes very sensible allowance for the fact that so many more attendees at auctions nowadays participate by telephone or online. How apt, then, that the Tomash sale was all about the history of computing, just another sign of change in the public auction process. And so to maths. Numbers fascinate. The alarm at six, the 94 bus, le cinq à sept , the 007 film, the sheep we count to help us to sleep, in
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