A very heavy proportion of the Early English entries in the Huth Catalogue are duplicates of those in the writer's _Collections_, and the same would be the case if the long-expected book on the Britwell heirlooms were to make its appearance. It would be, to a large extent, _bis cocta_.
In a private catalogue detailed explanation is required in the interest of bibliography, only where (i.) the owner happens to possess an unrecorded book; or (ii.) an unknown impression; or (iii.) a variant copy. Defects in important items should be particularised; in others the word _imperfect_ is sufficient; and it is best to indicate from what source they have come to the immediate repository. Take a few instances:--
Reynard the Fox, 1st edit. The Inglis copy. Folio, W. Caxton, Westminster, 1481.
Hannay (Patrick), Poems. The Huth copy. 8vo, London, 1622.
Holinshed (Raphael), Chronicles, 2 vols. The Sunderland copy. Wants the plan of Edinburgh Castle. Folio, London, 1577.
Shakespeare (W.), Plays, 1st edit. The Napier copy, wanting the verses. Folio, London, 1623.
The notation of differences in copies of the same book, even if it is not one of supreme value, is always apt to be useful. Of literary comment the supply is discretionary, so long as it is new, pertinent, and interesting. The transfer to the catalogue of any inedited manuscript matter on the fly-leaves or margins, or of any proprietary marks, is eminently desirable.
For French literature, which is so largely collected in England, the _Manuel du Libraire_, &c., of Brunet, 7 vols. 8vo, 1860-78, with the works of Cohen and Gay, is the standard authority. The two latter, so far as they go, are more exhaustive than the _Manuel_, which is nearly as incomplete as our Lowndes, and not much more accurate. A new edition has been mooted; it is a clear _desideratum_. For value Brunet is scarcely more serviceable than its English analogue, and the book is, curiously enough, particularly unsafe in such a field as the French books of former times, where so much depends on factitious conditions barely intelligible to an ordinary English or American consulter.
Two books which perhaps equally appeal to the English and Continental collectors are those just mentioned: Cohen, _Guide de l'Amateur de Livres à Gravures du XVIII^th siècle_, 5^me ed. 8^o, 1886-90, and Gay, _Bibliographie des Ouvrages relatifs à l'Amour, aux Femmes, au Mariage, et des Livres Facétieux_, 3^me ed. 12^o, 1871, 6 vols. Both, but especially the first, are essential for guidance in the choice of a class of publication of which the innumerable variations and the artificial prices necessitate the utmost caution on the part of an intending buyer.