Collector
Ames assembled a large collection of portraits, especially those of printers, although many were of doubtful authenticity. He also collected coins, ‘natural curiosities,’ inscriptions, antiquities and rare English books and manuscripts. Many of the books were annotated by former owners, and the manuscripts included a number of valuable historical transcripts. The collection was sold in 1760 after his death by Abraham Langford.
Among the collection was an interleaved copy of the Typographical Antiquities in two volumes, with manuscript additions by the author. The lot, which included plates, blocks, and copyright, was purchased by Sir Peter Thompson and afterwards was sold by him to William Herbert, who made use of it for his own edition of the book (1785–1790). Another edition was by Thomas Frognall Dibdin (4 vols., 1810–1819).
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Famous quotes containing the word collector:
“Though collecting quotations could be considered as merely an ironic mimetism—victimless collecting, as it were ... in a world that is well on its way to becoming one vast quarry, the collector becomes someone engaged in a pious work of salvage. The course of modern history having already sapped the traditions and shattered the living wholes in which precious objects once found their place, the collector may now in good conscience go about excavating the choicer, more emblematic fragments.”
—Susan Sontag (b. 1933)