We issued our first catalogue in October 1987, just over thirty-two years ago, and this catalogue, issued in the early spring of 2020, is the seventy-fifth that we have issued. All of these have been compiled on the same principles and designed and printed in the same format, and they have, we believe, set as good a standard in terms of content and of the reliability of the information provided as has been achieved by any antiquarian bookseller operating in our particular specialist field.

It has seemed to us that this is the appropriate moment to bring this series of catalogues to an end. We are marking the occasion by the issue of an index to our catalogues 51-75, identical in character to the index volumes that we have previously issued which respectively cover our catalogues 1-25 and our catalogues 26-50, and this will be available as soon as possible after the despatch of copies of the present catalogue. As with the predecessor index volumes, only a very limited number of copies will be printed, and we will charge a price of £12 per copy to go towards the costs of their production. We welcome advance orders for this Index.

As many of our regular customers will be aware, we have also circulated at intervals over this period a parallel series of less formal lists, and the issue of these will continue, for we still believe that there is merit in producing lists in physical form rather than simply for circulation over the internet. It is not that we disrespect digital forms of communication, and we have indeed in recent years provided advance digital copies of our catalogues and lists to a very few of our customers resident outside the United Kingdom, but we take the view that the arrival of a printed catalogue or list by post still offers the recipients both a moment of excitement and the knowledge that a quick email or telephone call may well secure them a book or books that will fill a gap or gaps in their cherished collections.

The content of the present catalogue largely speaks for itself, for all the books in it are of interest or value or both, but the catalogue does include a few surprises, including a copy of the original issue of a privately printed volume edited by President John F. Kennedy (item 49), and a small number of early nineteenth century autograph letters (items 20, 34, 56, 97), acquired by us fortuitously as part of a lot in a book sale which also contained an album of photographs of Lichfield Cathedral (item 54).