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Many thanks to Berhard Wirth, Hans Eckert, and David Szewczyk for their
suggestions, but I should emphasize again that I am searching for the
circumstances under which Perry purchased the Morris/Gamman vellum
copies. The sales of Perry's books are well documented. What I don't
know is how he managed to acquire the Kelmscott books. Did he buy them
directly from Gamman? Was there an intermediate owner? Were they offered
in some catalogue that I have not seen, or was this a private transaction?
At the risk of annoying our moderator, I am pasting below my original
question, which may have been slightly misunderstood.
Bill Peterson
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In August 1897 Sydney Cockerell, on behalf of the William Morris estate,
sold to Henry Gamman (1855-1926), an English businessman, Morris's own
set of vellum copies of the Kelmscott Press books. By the 1920s these
books were in the hands of Marsden J. Perry in Rhode Island. So far I
have been unable to discover when or how Gamman sold this vellum set, or
when or how Perry acquired it.
If anyone on this list knows of an auction or dealer catalogue or any
other piece of evidence that might shed light on this question, I would
like to hear from you -- off-list, if you prefer.