The Lost Erotica of James West

On the cold, cloudy, and damp afternoon of Saturday 3 April 1773, on the eighth day of the sale of "the Curious and Truly Valuable Library of the Late James West"—one-time President of The Royal Society and one of the original trustees of the British Museum—three particularly important volumes of erotica were due to be sold.¹ As the auctioneer approached lot 1110, collectors such as William Herbert, John Ratcliffe, and James Brindley competed with members of the London book trade at "Mr. West's late Dwelling-House in King's-Street, Covent-Garden" for items from West's "varied and extensive" library.² True dyfferens betwen ye regall power and the ecclesiasticall power from 1548 (lot *1094) sold to Herbert for eleven shillings. Soon after, Pithy, Pleasant And Profitable Works Of Mister Skelton, Poet Laureate from 1568 (lot 1096), sold to Ratcliffe for seventeen shillings. But it is not entirely clear what happened after Du Vergers humble reflections vpon some passages of the Right Honorable the Lady Marchionesse of Nevvcastles Olio from 1657 (lot 1109) sold to Brindley for two shillings. Conflicting accounts suggest that, at the least, West's erotic books were missing and, consequently, not sold; but other accounts suggest that these "Curious and Truly Valuable" items were taken out of, withdrawn, or even stolen from, the sale.

In the following essay, after saying a little about West, the cataloguing and sale of his library, I survey West's "luxuriant and fruitful" collection of erotica,³ which contained a series of important works, some of which are now lost or have not been seen since they appeared in West's sale catalogue. These works include what may be described as the earliest pornographic work in English⁴ and the earliest defence of homosexuality in English. I then turn to the conflicting accounts of the fate of lot 1110 contained in over fifty surviving copies of the auction catalogue for his library. I suggest that, while such auction catalogues truly offer an invaluable "window into the past"—making the present survey of West's erotica possible—the conflicting accounts contained in annotated catalogues should encourage book historians to re-assess their understanding and use of these "first-hand witness[es] to a moment now gone."⁵

Plate 1.

Mezzotint of James West by Thomas Hodgetts, after a painting attributed to Thomas Gainsborough (from J. Ames and T. F. Dibdin, Typographical Antiquities of Great Britain, vol. 4, 1819, opp. p.193)

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James West (1703–72) (Fig. 1) was rich: very rich. When he married in 1738, his wife brought him a dowry of one hundred thousand pounds to add to the income of one thousand pounds per annum that his father had left him, the financial benefits of various Government jobs and, from the late 1750s, a pension of another thousand pounds per annum.⁶ To put these sums in perspective: from 1741 to 1744 Eliza Haywood had lodgings in Covent Garden, where she kept very "genteel Company," on about fifty pounds per year.⁷ West's annual income was enough to support more than forty such writers in Covent Garden, while his wife's dowry would have supported a succession of writers for about two thousand years. Rather than drink, gamble, or collect writers, West passionately collected books, manuscripts, pictures, prints, plate, coins, and medals. And, although West led an active life, he found time to collect on a large scale.⁸

In his 1949 account of West's library, R. Charles Lucas explains that

[West began] his purchases while still a student [at Oxford] in the 1720s, and continued until shortly before his death in 1772. With his love for scientific and antiquarian pursuits, not, however, too deeply pursued, and with his all-embracing interests and enthusiasms, he may be taken as a typical collector of his delightful age … for West not only collected books of the most varied kinds, but was also a connoisseur of pictures and prints, an eager numismaticist, and an assiduous hunter after all manner of other...