Thank you very much for this information, Eric.
I copied the "Temple of the Muses, Finsbury-Square" address off the title
page before I really started cataloguing the books (a 7-volume translation
of Linnaeus, 1806), and further investigation revealed that they were in
fact printed in Swansea several years earlier. Whether this accounts for
the peculiar blue-grey colour of the paper is another matter.
I should have been more precise with my original query - thank you, again.
Jane Wickenden
-----Original Message-----
From: Eric Holzenberg [mailto:ejh@grolierclub.org]
Sent: 23 July 2004 14:10
To: Multiple recipients of list
Subject: Re: Publishers' home
Fire destroyed the original Temple of the Muses in 1841 -- the Grolier Club
has a pencil sketch and watercolor of the ruins. The Temple of the Muses
was famous for its enormous size (it had a frontage of 140 ft) and
remarkable volume of trade (reputedly 100,000 volumes per year), as well as
for the exuberant self-promotion of its founder, James Lackington. The
Temple of the Muses was the Barnes & Noble of its day. But I'm not sure if
Lackington, or his successors Lackington, Allen & Co., ever carried on a
printing business in Finsbury Square. I think of the Temple of the Muses as
purely a retail book establishment, but I'm open to correction.
Eric Holzenberg
Director
The Grolier Club
47 East 60th Street
New York, NY 10022
phone: 212/838-6690
fax: 212/838-2445
e-mail: ejh@grolierclub.org
website: <http://www.grolierclub.org/>www.grolierclub.org
At 02:31 AM 7/23/2004 -0700, you wrote:
>
>
>Does any Londoner on the list know whether Lackington, Allen & Co's
building
>still exists in Finsbury Square? I would love to think it still possible
to
>find a printing-house called "Temple of the Muses" ...
>
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>Jane Wickenden
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>On a more serious note, my most profound sympathies to Everett.
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>**************************************
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>Mrs J.V.S. Wickenden, MA (Oxon) Dip.Lib.
>
>Historic Collections Library
>
>Institute of Naval Medicine
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>Alverstoke
>
>Gosport
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>Hants. PO12 2DL
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>tel: 023 9276 8238
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>e-m: cat1@inm.mod.uk
>
>***************************************
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