Twenty-two bookseller's catalogues

All items octavo, stitched and unbound. Page range between 16 and 32. Each catalogue carrying an illustration on the front cover. The condition of the collection is variable. All items on aged paper: some dogeared or with closed tears, and a handful with damp and other staining. Several catalogues annotated in a contemporary hand, and one with an entry cut out. Coleman's speciality was 'Heraldry, Genealogy, Topography', and the first three catalogues are headed 'Pedigrees! Pedigrees!' There is a touching and unusual personal element to one of these scarce, ephemeral items: no.CXLVI of 1881 carries a picture of a church on the cover, beneath which are given the details of the death of Coleman's wife. The same number announces that 'MR. COLEMAN has WILLIAM PENN'S SNUFF Box for sale. It is made of the best materials and the finest workmanship. It is a perfect Gem of its kind. To be sold to an APPRECIATOR ONLY.' Coleman purchased from the Penn Library 'a copy of William Penn's Original Plan and Proposal for the Founding and Building of the splendid city of Philadelphia, in Pennsylvania, America', of which he announces a reprint. COPAC only lists the British Library's complete set of 231 Coleman catalogues, issued between 1859 and 1897.