[Printed auction catalogue.] Catalogue of the Valuable Library and the Collection of Old Play-Bills and Theatrical Prints of Sir Henry Irving, Deceased. [...] Commander of the Saxe-Ernestine Order, Late of 17 Stratton Street, W.

8vo., 69pp. Unbound as issued. In fair condition, on lightly-aged and worn paper, with worn and chipped printed front wrap still present, with ownership inscription at head (''). 482 lots, with several of the books ticked in pencil. Included, as lots 95 to 112A, are 'specially printed copies of the various Lyceum Plays, as arranged for the Stage by SIR HENRY IRVING; they contain numerous manuscript alterations in the text in the handwriting of the great Actor, and are in consequence of very great interest'. Also, as lot 248, and described over a whole page, an extra-illustrated copy of Forster's life of Dickens, including 'the original MS. of the Preface to Dombey and Son'. Also of interest are lots 259, 269 and 272, comprising extra-illustrated 'Memorials' to Garrick, Kean and Macready. Lots 395-477 are engravings; and lots 478 to 482 are play bills, with 478 listing ones from the Drury Lane between 1785 and 1820; and 480 listing ones from Covent Garden between 1815 and 1823. Lot 481 contains items relating to 'Niagara Falls, Blondin's feat of walking across the Falls', dating from between 1792 and 1821. Scarce: only three copies on COPAC, at the British Library, Oxford and Bristol (the first two listed as copies of the revised edition). For more information about this important sale, see A. N. L. Munby's introduction to vol. 12 (1975) of his edition of 'The Sale Catalogues of Libraries of Eminent Persons'.