A large price; but as 50 copies only were printed, all for presentation, perhaps it was not dear. Vols. III and IV were printed in 1872.

Lot 3617. De Bry, Grands et petits Voyages. In Latin and in German. 85 parts bound in 55 vols., folio, by Niedrée, of Paris. $5,016.00

This unique and beautiful set of books was the "great gem" of the sale in respect to completeness; it was certainly the most perfect series ever offered for sale. It is excelled in some respects by the collections belonging respectively to Mr. James Lenox, of New York, and Mr. J. Carter Brown, of Providence; but it was a most royal set, and it is to be hoped that it will reach a final resting place in the United States. It was bought by Mr. Frederick Muller, bookseller of Amsterdam.

Lot 3618. Hariot's Virginia (in French). $416.00

A splendid copy, with two blank leaves not hitherto described.

Lot 3734. Champlain's Voyages. Map in fac-simile. $126.00

Lot 3798. Sir Francis Drake's Narrative. $26.00 Lot 3861. Hakluyt's Collection of Voyages. 5 vols., 4to. $130.00

Lot 3932. Le Clerc Etablissement de la foy dans la nouvelle France. 2 vols. $155.00 Lot 4036. Purchas his Pilgrims. 5 vols., folio. London, 1625. $426.00 Lacking one map, but in size and general condition one of the finest copies in existence.

Lot 4069. Ruchamer. Newe unbekantde landte Und ein newe weldte in kurt. 1508. $88.00 A most rare collection of voyages, including the relations of Columbus and Vespucius.

Lot 4070. Ruchamer. A Dutch Translation. Unique copy. $500.00 Bought by Mr. Frederick Muller for Mr. J. Carter Brown, of Providence.

Lot 4448. Souvenirs et Réminiscences de M. S. de Sobolewski. 28 vols. $150.00

This was indeed a souvenir. M. Sobolewskî had kept all his bills and other memoranda concerning his books, not omitting even his hotel expenses, filed away in chronological sequence all his correspondence, and indeed left here a memoranda of bibliographical research which would certainly possess enough of interest to be edited and printed in part. The collection was bought by a bookseller of Berlin, who may cherish some such intention.

This ended the sale of a library which for variety and extent is seldom excelled in the collections of private life. It may be interesting to add that about one-fourth in value of the entire library was purchased for the United States. Notwithstanding the fact that the books were in reality partly owned by the auctioneers, a circumstance which perhaps kept some buyers from the sale, it must be admitted that it was conducted with entire fairness towards the purchasers; and such were the linguistic attainments of the auctioneer, Mr. Liste, that all the buyers were addressed, when occasion needed, in their own language. France was represented by M. Henri Tross, of Paris; Holland, by Mr. Frederick Muller, of Amsterdam, and America, by the writer of this notice. England was not represented, but Mr. B. Quaritch afterwards informed us he had sent some commissions. The audience rarely exceeded twenty persons, most of whom relieved the tedium of the sale by smoking, and drinking various kinds of beer, the names of which were to us un

known. The weather was hot, and ice water is not apparently a known beverage among German booksellers. We may remark that the buyers were all booksellers, and it seems customary throughout Europe for booksellers only to attend the sales.

GOSSIP ABOUT PORTRAITS.

III.-ON

(Continued.)

ENGRAVED PORTRAITS, AND
THEIR INSCRIPTIONS.

We have spoken of the desirability of forming collections of engraved portraits, as in most cases they give a very sufficing idea of the form and expression of the original, particularly when they are engraved by an able artist, from a fine and authentic picture. But even a coarse copy of a coarse original, or an outline sketch will tell us something more than may be expressed in words. In such a case, practice in judging of the merit of an engraving as a work of art, will enable us to look beyond the effort of the artist, and to see, partly, what the engraving as a portrait ought to have been, in spite of its existing demerit. In looking at portraits, besides the knowledge we gain of the features of persons we have heard or read of, we become impatient to know more of them, and we are lead to seek out particulars of their lives and actions till we gradually form more than a passing acquaintance with them. Thus, in studying biography, we usually become not only better versed in general history, but get a peep into various vistas of knowledge that may lead us into many pleasant byepaths of social life. We shall not dwell on the art-knowledge we may gain from the mere outward circumstances of pictures and engravings, but rather notice the fund of entertainment and information we may gather from that inner soul which pictures have; we mean the acquaintance obtained with the thoughts of those whose pictures are before us. To do justice to this it would be necessary to instance so many engravings that we shall content ourselves with simply mentioning the circumstance, particularly as our readers will easily recall to their mind many portraits that seem to tell their own story, to be what are termed "speaking" likenesses.

This leads to Physiognomy :—and there is no more powerful argument for that science than the production of a series of portraits. Take for instance half-a-dozen portraits, good engravings, after Holbein, Vandyke, Lely, Cooper, Kneller, Hogarth, Reynolds, or Romney (we speak only of those known as English artists, and omit many that are eminent and good), and that there may be a science called Physiognomy is evident.

In the "Numismata" is a long and most interesting chapter on Physiognomy, in which Evelyn compares the portraits of many great men with their characters as shown in history, or from what he himself knew of them. But Evelyn was a man not without his prejudices, and his characters are not always to be relied upon. Still, Lavater's works and Bell On Expression" give nearly all that need be said upon the subject, though a small part only of what has been said.

To many portraits are attached inscriptions, generally eulogistic, and frequently containing some expressions which convey an idea of the genius, acquirements, or pursuits which have rendered the individual worth knowing. Some of these inscriptions are curious, and a few so striking that they have become as celebrated as the engravings they adorn. We shall be excused quoting those generally known as well as others, because many will be glad to have them verbatim, instead of merely a dim recollection of them, and those who know them by heart will be glad that others should know them as well.

The first that will occur to any one at all acquainted with engraved portraits, will probably be the verses by Ben Jonson to the Droeshout portrait of Shakespeare, originally prefixed to the rare "first Folio" edition of his Works, though adopted also in later editions.

"This figure that thou here seest put,
It was for gentle Shakespear cut;
Wherein the graver had a strife
With nature, to out-do the life.
O could he but have drawn his wit
As well in brass, as he has hit
His face, the print would then surpass
All that was ever writ in brass.
But since he cannot, reader, look
Not on his picture but his book.

B. J."
These lines by Ben Jonson recall those

"Underneath this sable hearse
Lies the subject of all verse:
Sidney's sister: Pembroke's Mother:
Death, 'ere thou hast slain another,
Learned and fair and good as shee,
Time shall throw a dart at thee."

Then we have the lines to Milton's portrait by Dryden, which, however familiar they may be supposed to be, are scarcely ever quoted without some error in the important adjectives:

"Three poets in three distant ages born, Greece, Rome, and England did adorn : The first in loftiness of thought surpassed; The next in majesty:-in both the last. The force of Nature could no farther go; To make a third she joined the former two." These lines have suggested numberless others. Prefixed to his "Anima Astrologia," by William Lilly, "student in Astrology," 1576, is a print containing portraits of Lilly, Cardan, and Guido Bonatus, with this explosive inscription:

"Let Envy burst-Urania's glad to see Her sons thus joined in a TriplicityTo Cardan and to Guido much is due, But in one Lilly we behold them Two!" One of the most extraordinary inscriptions is that to a portrait of Lady Dorothy Boyle, painted by her mother Lady Burlington. Lady Boyle died from the cruel ill-treatment of her husband, George, Earl of Euston.

"Lady Dorothy Boyle,

Born May the 14th, 1724.

She was the comfort and joy of her parents, the delight of all who knew her angelic temper, and the admiration of all who saw her beauty.

She was marry'd October the 10th, 1741, and delivered, by death, from misery,

May the 2d, 1742.

This picture was drawn (from memory) seven weeks after her death, by her most affectionate Mother,

Dorothy Burlington."

This is the inscription to the picture as given by Lord Dover (Walpole, i. 290). Lady Burlington had it engraved (with the inscription slightly varied, it was said, by Pope) and presented it to her friends.

Although many English engravings have inscriptions to them, the fashion was more general we think in France and Holland, and

some of their best poets (as well as many of their worst) were often engaged to write these eulogistic verses. In a letter of Vandyke to the learned Francis Junius, which is in the British Museum, and printed by Mr. Carpenter in his very interesting and elaborate work on Vandyke, there occu's this passage (translated from the original Dutch): "As I have caused the portrait of the Chevalier Digby to be engraved, with a view to publication, I humbly request you to favor me with a little motto by way of inscription at the bottom of the plate, by which you will render me a service, and do me great honor." This would seem to have been done in the plate by Van Voerst. We give this extract here to show how these inscriptions-which in the 17th century were' so general-were manufactured, as it were, to order. And poets could and did spin out eulogistic couplets by the yard as easily and with as much satisfaction as a "Cheap Jack” evolves a Pharaoh's Serpent from a pewter platter. Walpole has amusingly described this plethora of encomia which Poets often exhibited. In speaking of Mrs. Anne Killigrew, who, besides being beautiful and a poet "a Grace for beauty and a Muse for wit" -was a painter also, "Dryden," he says, "has celebrated her genius for painting and poetry in a very long ode, in which the rich stream of his numbers has hurried along with it all that his luxurious fancy produced in his way; it is an harmonious hyperbole composed of the fall of Adam, Arethusa, Vestal Virgins, Diana, Cupid, Noah's Ark, the Pleiades, the Valley of Jehoshaphat, and the Last Assizes." She seems to have been a sort of Lady O'Looney. She was maid of honour to the Duchess of York, and died of the small-pox in 1685. "Likewise she painted in water-colors, and of such is the kingdom of Heaven."

We did not intend to extend our remarks generally to other than English portraits, but a few instances suggest themselves as we turn over our portfolios. On two portraits by Mignard of Louis XIV (of whom there are by various artists about 40 or 50) and Mad. de Maintenon, the following lines were written by Mlle. Bernard, addressed to the painter:

"Oui, votre art, je l'avoue, est au dessus du mien, J'ai loué mille fois votre invincible maître : Mais vous, en deux portraits, nous le faites connoître :

On voit aisement dans le sien

Sa valeur, son cœur magnanime:Dans l'autre, on voit son goût à placer son estime. Ah! Mignard, que vous louez bien !"

Mignard, by praising well, pleased well. His sitters have all the air of being satisfied with themselves, and the portraits are doubtless very like. His own head, by himself, is fine and unaffected, with full penetrating eyes, chastened by an air of savoir faire and quiet reticence, that would stamp him gentleman among gentlemen. When he painted the portraits noticed above, which was shortly before the secret nuptials, and when Mad. de Maintenon was 47 or 48 years old, he represented the lady as St. Françoise, and he asked the king it he might introduce an ermine mantle (which is heraldically regal) "worthily to adorn the figure." "Yes," replied the king smiling, "St. Françoise well deserves it!" The pictures were life size, and that of the lady is spoken of by Mad. de Coulange to Mad. de Sévigné, as representing all her character and grace, without any flattery of youth or prettiness which did not belong to her. Thirty years later another portrait of Mad. de Maintenon was painted, and the following lines were composed for it. It is Madame herself who is supposed to speak

"L'estime de mon roi m'en acquit la tendresse ;
Je l'aimai trente ans sans foiblesse ;
Il m'aima trente ans sans remords;
Je ne fus ni reine ni maitresse :
Devine mon nom et mon sort!"

Mad. de Maintenon herself sometimes made verses; and, as appropriate to the subject in hand, we may mention those addressed to the Abbé Têtu, on seeing a village signboard of the Magdalen, which bore a striking resemblance to the Abbé, a squint in the eye of the Magdalen being an accidental effect not intended by the vil lage Apelles.

"Est ce pour flatter ma peine
Que dans un vieux cabaret,
Croyant voir la Madeleine,
Je trouve votre portrait ?

La marque d'amour me touche,
J'en aime la nouveauté :

On vous a fait femme et louche,
Sans nuire à la vérité !"

And as the following lines by the same lady allude to something scarcely more animated than a picture we will add them, as they have more vivacity than their subject:

"Deux amans, brûlant du désir de se voir, Après s'être cherchés, se trouverent, un soir, Dans un bois sombre et solitaire.

Que leur plaisir fut grand! il passa leur espoir ! Mais après les transports du salut ordinaire, Ils ne surent que dire, et ne surent que faire." Which puts one in mind of the loving lines addressed by a wife to her absent spouse.

"Je vous ecris, parceque je n'ai rien a faire

Je finis, parceque je n'ai rien à dire !" Among inscriptions should be mentioned that to the portrait of the learned Sigerus. He was at the expense of having a plate engraved in which he was represented kneeling before a crucifix, with a label from his mouth, "Lord Jesus, do you love me?" From that of Jesus proceeded another label. "Yes, most illustrious, most excellent, and most learned Sigerus, crowned poet of his Imperial Majesty, and most worthy rector of the University of Wittenburg; yes, I love you!" Which, after all, is scarcely less impious or profane, than, the various labels and inscriptions we find. in the print of Charles I. engraved by White, and prefixed to the "Vindicia Carolinæ, or a defence of Eikon Basilike." Portraits sometimes speak praises themselves, as when Le Brun, painting his own portrait, introduced also that of his earliest patron; or they tell by a pictorial pun what without words could not well be told, as when the name of John Booker, Astrologer and writing-master of Hadleigh, who published an Almanack, is given in his portrait by the introduction of a book with a large R on it! Also sometimes by the means of "accessories" some clue is given to the profession or distinguishing merit of the person painted. Thus Maupertuis, the mathematician, is represented in a Lapland dress, with a globe and chart by him, and other illustrations of his career. In this print after Tournière, engraved by Daullé 1741, and a fine bit of engraving it is, we have a good specimen of the "por trait verses so commonly met with at this period. These lines are by Voltaire, and allude to the globe as well as to the world which inhabits it!

"Ce Globe mal connu qu'il a su mesurer Devient un monument ou sa gloire se fonde; Son sort est de fixer la figure du monde, De lui plaire et de l'éclairer." (To be continued.)