Catalogue of a bibliomaniac’s childhood furniture. Rare.

[Sir Thomas Phillipps] / [Furniture]. Catalogue of Furniture, at Middle Hill, Broadway, Worcestershire, 1794. [Cheltenham]: James Rogers, Middle Hill Press, 1864. [17.3 x 10.4 cm], [1] f., 6 pp. Disbound. Unopened, with sewing holes and some separation at the folds, minor toning and spotting. 
 
 
Rare first and only edition of this unusual ‘catalogue’ of furniture and other household items, being a inventory of objects found in the Middle Hill estate of eccentric bibliomaniac Sir Thomas Phillipps (1792-1872) in 1794, when he was only 2 years old, in the year that Phillipps’ father acquired the estate. Phillipps had the list printed at his Middle Hill Press in 1864, apparently having discovered the 1794 inventory in manuscript form and thinking it worthy of being set in type. This example of the list is unopened.
 
The work is headed, “A Catalogue of the Goods in Middle Hill House, under the care of Mr. & Mrs. Knibbs, taken October 29th. 1794, at Broadway, Worcestershire,” and moves room by room enumerating items found “In the Dairy,” “In the Laundry,” “Servants Hall,” “Small Beer Cellar,” “Ale Cellar,” “In the Scullery,” “Kitchen,” “The House Keeper’s Room,” “Butler’s Room,” Dining Parlour,” “Oval Room,” “Oval Billiard Room,” “Colonel’s (Savage) Bed Room,” “Stair Case,” “No. 8 Servant Girl’s Room,” “In Attic Storey,” Blue Room,” “White Room,” “Wash House,” and “Brew House.” Among the more common household tools and furniture are such things as “Four Old Trunks with Odd Remnants of Paper,” “Two Scent Jars,” “Two Small Wilton Carpets,” “Fish Kettle,” etc. The ‘catalogue’ closes with a list of “Keys delivered to Mr. and Mrs. Knibbs, belonging to Middle Hill House, October 29th. 1794,” and a list giving the “Weight of the Beds, December 8th. 1794.”
 
“Phillipps was one of the greatest (and perhaps the most voracious) of all book and manuscript collectors” (Tanselle, “Preface,” in Holzenberg, p. xi), and beginning in 1822 his delightful, often bizarre Middle Hill Press produced hundreds of items of true literary, bibliographic, antiquarian, local-historical, and genealogical importance, all the while mixing letterpress with experimental lithographic, anastatic and photographic techniques. Phillipps also used his press to handle the business needs of his estate (e.g., blank forms), to engage in local squabbles and political disputes, and to print items of all sorts in very small batches for his own amusement or for informal distribution to friends (or enemies) of his choosing. He often used his printing press quite casually, just as we might use a copy machine, scanner, or household printer. Catalogue of Furniture, at Middle Hill, Broadway, Worcestershire, 1794 no doubt was printed in very small numbers. 
 
 
OCLC locates examples of this work at the Grolier Club, Winterthur, Yale Center For British Art, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek and British Library. 
 
*E. Holzenberg, The Middle Hill Press: A Checklist of the Horblit Collection, p. 16, no. 47.