Illustrated Catalogue De Luxe Of The Very Valuable Art Property Collected By The Late Robert Hoe [Complete In 2 Vols.]

Publ. by Lent & Graff for the American Art Association. This is Copy No. 209 of 275 copies of the Subscriber's edition. 14 x 11.75 inches. The text blocks of the original catalogue are intact, and the heavy-duty cream wrapper for the front of Vol. I is bound in. The catalogue has been protected by a later over-binding of hunter green buckram. The binding is very clean, with scarcely any soiling observed. Minor rubbing. With large, crisp, gilt-stamped red morocco labels to the spines, the label for Vol. II with about 2 square cm defaced. Unbumped spine heads and tails, and with fairly sharp corners. Text blocks firmly bound in. With handsomely deckled fore-edge and bottom edge pages. Unnumbered pages of semi-glossy, heavy-duty paper. Vol. I with Lots 1-1884; Vol. II with Lots 1885-4801. Frontispiece of Rembrandt painting c. 1640, plus dozens of additional full-page B&W plates and with additional marginal illus. Tiny chip at bottom of page for Lots 92-94, trivial. Gently read. A Very Good set of volumes. Vol. I weighs 11 lbs, 6 oz. Vol. II weighs 10 lbs. 4 oz. The sale was conducted over 15 days, from 15 Feb. to 3 Mar. 1911, with 15 afternoon sessions and 3 evening sessions at the American Art Galleries and 2 evening sessions at Mendelssohn Hall. Among the artists collected by Hoe were Gerome, Hogarth, Kneller, Moreau, Poussin, Reynolds, Rembrandt, Tissot, and van Ruysdael. Asian art, English and continental ceramics, silver, watches, tapestries, snuff boxes, and other categories were also included. Robert Hoe III [1839-1909] was an American businessman and producer of printing press equipment. He was one of the organizers and first president of the Grolier Club, the well-known New York organization for the promotion of bookmaking as an art. He was also one of the founders of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Hoe was an extensive collector of rare books and manuscripts as well as silver, miniatures, and other art objects, his collections at the time of his death being valued at several million dollars. The catalogues of his library were unique and valuable from both a typographical and bibliographical standpoint. His collection was sold at auction during 1911 and 1912 with almost half his books going to Henry E. Huntington, including a Gutenberg Bible.