John Bagford

John Bagford and His Collections, by W. Y. Fletcher, Transactions of the Bibliographical Society (1898)

https://archive.org/details/transactions04bibluoft

Bagford -- brought up as a shoemaker; believed to have written "Art of Shoemaking and Historicall Account of Clouthing of ye foot," Harley manuscripts

employed by Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford, Sir Hans Sloane, and John Moore, Bishop of Ely

participated in 1707 in founding of Society of Antiquaries

amassed two great collections: ballads (Bagford Ballads), and collection of title pages, fragments of books, specimens of paper, catalogues, book-plates, drawing, engravings, bindings, advertisements, and various interesting and curious pieces"

was going to write a history of printing; 1707, published "Proposals for printing an Historical Account of that most universally celebrated, as well as useful Art of Typography

this proposal is printed on a half-sheet, with a Life of William Caxton, first printer in the Abbey of Westminster and a list of his books

Bagford's Notes on Bookbinding, by Cyril Davenport (1903)

Wanley describes Bagford's collection in Philosophical Transactions; later by A. W. Pollard

1707, Bagford attempts to secure subscriptions to his history of printing (with help of Sloane and Wanley); outline of project printed in Philosophical Transactions 1706-7 and in "Proposals for printing an historical account of that most universally celebrated, as well as useful art of typography," a pamphlet to attract subscribers with life of Caxton attached

"Of booke binding ancient" (Harl. 5910 f 131 a) -- vellum rolls and waxen diptychs; boards, pasteboards, boards made of old ropes, and sewing and headbandings; chained books are condemned

"Of Booke binding modourne" - explains processes of collating, folding, beating the leaves, ruling the books with red; at beginning of Harl 5943 are 20 pgs of thick blue paper, pasted with various speciens of bindings and MS notes; Bagford's handwritten notes on pg 8-9; "some [bindings] may have been added since, but none have been taken away" (126)

John Bagford, Bookseller and Antiquary, by Milton McC. Gatch (1986)

19c saw Bagford as a biblioclast, "yet balanced scholarship in the present century has found Bagford to be a credible dealer and collector, despite his manifest shortcomings" (150)

despite Dibdin's believe the Wanley must have edited Bagford's proposal for a history of printing, surviving evidence shows that "Bagford was very much in control of the composition and development of this descriptive advertisement for and sample of the history of printing" (161)

Gatch identifies mss of "Proposal"

"Despite all this evidence, it is difficult for a modern scholar to believe that Bagford could ever have produced a satisfactory history of the very difficult subject of the technology and bibliography of printing. Yet it is necessary to respect the opinion of contemporaries of the magnitude of Hearne, Sloane, and Wanley that the collection was an important one and that Bagford himself, despite his manifest limitations, was an impressive and learned figure." (161)

seems strange today to have title-pages as primary source for Bagford's research; but "it should be recalled that B's title-page collection contained some 3,600 items printed in English alone. Of these some 800 items -- 544 of them printed before 1701 -- are not recorded in the short-title catalogues" (164)

autograph memorandum from Bagford on history of printed editions of Chaucer's works; helped stimulate Urry's edition of 1721

On Antiquaries

• Antiquaries, book collectors, and the circles of learning, edited by Robin Myers and Michael Harris (1996)
• Antiquaries : the discovery of the past in eighteenth-century Britain, by Rosemary Sweet (2004)
• Making history : antiquaries in Britain, 1707-2007 (2007)
• Antiquaries & archaists : the past in the past, the past in the present, edited by Megan Aldrich and Robert J. Wallis (2009)
• Papers of British antiquaries and historians

manuscripts

Lambeth Palace LIbrary MS 1742, misc. papers, includes Bagford's Proposals for printing an historical account of typography: http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/1154b8d4-7183-42e7-bbb0-1d0ceea7e04c

Cambridge UL, Dd X 56-57, MS History of Typography and account of first English impressions of the Bible: http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/N13645175

Bodleian, MS Rawl D 375, papers relating to the history of printing: http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/N13967649