26 FEBRUARY 1927, Page 32

Hints for Collectors

A SIASSIVF. and finely illustrated catalogue from Messrs. Sotheby informs us that the sale of the final portion of Mr. S. R. Christie-Miller's world-famous library at Britwell Court, near Maidenhead. will begin on March 28th and last ten days. It has taken seventeen years to disperse the Britwell treasures, and the vast sums already realized surpass all records in the auction-room. Yet the 2,151 items in the new catalogue include many very rare and numerous unique books, especially those printed in England before 1640, for which Britwell was noted and for which the great American collectors will pay any price. Charles I's " Proclamation for settling the Plantation of Virginia," 1625, and " A Letter from Thomas Paskill of Pennsylvania," 1683, are two of the extremely scarce pieces relating to America that are most keenly coveted. The first edition of Linacre's Latin Grammar, printed by Pynson in 1524, with the signature of Nicholas Udall, the contemporary head-master of Eton and dramatist, is a historic book in every sense which ought to be in the college library or in the British Museum.