A few other firms of book-auctioneers, although, with one exception, they have ceased to exist, call for mention. Sam Paterson, than whom no more popular an auctioneer ever wielded a hammer, was, as we have already seen, first a bookseller. Sam--we employ the little familiarity by which he was universally known--was born in 1728 in the parish of St. Paul, Covent Garden, and lived on till 1802, his death being the result of an accident. He was not only a bookseller, but an author and a traveller, and it was during a tour in Holland and Flanders that he brought home a large collection of books, which he sold at auction. In 1757, Sam prevented the valuable collection of MSS. once belonging to Sir Julius Cæsar from being destroyed; they had actually been sold to a cheesemonger as waste-paper for £10. He rescued the whole collection, and drew up a masterly catalogue of it, and when sold by auction the result was £356. For some years he was librarian to the Earl of Shelburne, afterwards first Marquis of Lansdowne. Sam's great talents at 'cataloguizing' were unrivalled: he compiled those of James West, P.R.S. (whose library he sold at Langford's), 1773, the sale lasting twenty-four days, and including a fine series of books printed by Caxton, Wynkyn de Worde, and on Old English literature and history, voyages and travels (see p. 179); the Rev. Thomas Crofts, forty-three days, in 1783; Topham Beauclerk, April 8, 1781, and following forty-nine days (the collection was dispersed by Sam himself 'opposite Beaufort Buildings, Strand'); of the Fagel Collection, now in Trinity College, Dublin, 1802, and others. Nichols states that the catalogues of the libraries of Maffei Pinelli, sold in London in fifty-four days, 1789-90; of Samuel Tyssen, 1801, thirteen days; and of John Strange, fifty-six days, 1801, were compiled by the versatile Sam. The Pinelli catalogue most certainly was not his work, for although he commenced it, he threw it up at a very early stage. The Tyssen and Strange libraries were sold at Sotheby's, for whom Sam 'catalogued' for some time. The book-hunter in London will occasionally meet with a copy of the 'Bibliotheca Universalis Selecta' on the stalls for a few pence, and he is strongly recommended to buy this very admirable volume. It is a model catalogue in its way; the contents of this sale (which took place at Sam's Great Room in King Street, Covent Garden, on Monday, May 8, 1786, and the thirty-five following days) are carefully classified, whilst the index extends to nearly seventy pages. The volume is well interspersed with Sam's annotations, and the published price of it is 5s. 6d. The second condition of sale is extremely interesting; it says, 'No bidder shall advance less than THREEPENCE under ten shillings; above ten shillings, SIXPENCE; above one pound, ONE SHILLING.'