Tracking A.B. Triggs and his collections - Arthur Bryant Triggs - Biography

MARGIN: Life & Letters in Early Australia, Nov, 2003 by Alan Ives

Lots 1300 to 1426 are 'Dictionaries, Encyclopaedia[s], Reference Books and [the] conclusion of General Literature'. Unfortunately the descriptions in this section of the catalogue are very limited, often including words such as 'and two others', or similar, and subject headings singularly lacking in useful information, such as 'Essays and Philosophy: 7 vol[umes]'. However, despite the often perfunctory catalogue entries, the lots 806 to 1426 still portray a remarkable collection of books.

The cover of the November 1945 catalogue reads as follows:

   "Catalogue/of/The A.B. Triggs Collections/of/Historical Documents
   and Autograph Letters/Old Master Drawings/Historic and Modern
   Laces/Coins, Tokens and Medals/to be sold by public auction/at/
   The Gallery Salerooms/236 Castlereagh Street, Sydney/on/Tuesday
   27th, Wednesday 28th, Thursday 29th/November, 1945/ ...".

This catalogue has a foreword which states the following about the historical documents and their ilk:

   "The Historical Documents, Autograph Letters and Manuscripts,
   probably form a unique collection, including, as it does, one
   of the finest Tudor documents extant, the Royal Letters Patent
   signed by Edward VI and his council of Regency sealed with the
   great seal of England, togeter with Manuscripts, Historical
   Documents and Letters signed by the Kings and Queens of England
   since the first Tudor Sovereign, Foreign Documents of Historic
   interest, Autograph Letters and Documents of Statesmen, Authors,
   Naval and Military men, documents of Australian interest, and
   Miscellaneous items, mainly purchased from the famous London
   firm of Messrs. Maggs Bros., and catalogued by them for the
   late Mr. Triggs. It is from that catalogue that the present
   description is taken".

The Royal Letters Patent signed by Edward VI and his Council of Regency fetched the sum of 150 guineas at the sale. It is item 13 in the catalogue. In his 1952 book James Tyrrell states that it was bought by private collector in Sydney and that at the time of his writing--some seven years after the sale--it remained in Sydney. It is intriguing to note that item 99 was a manuscript by Inigo Jones (1573-1652), the famous architect who designed many buildings. It was a narrow oblong vellum quarto page described 'As to bail for William Stepney, who was under his recognisance for 40 pounds'.

The person who partially annotated this copy of the November 1945 catalogue was more interested in the works of art and the laces and embroideries than in the other items in the catalogue. Some of the works of art fetched high prices given that this was a 'colonial' sale held not very long after the end of World War II. It is fruitless but nonetheless bemusing to consider the prices that might be reached today--some would be very great indeed.

Curiously none of the several catalogues of elements of Triggs' collections is listed in the sale catalogues of 1945. Only Bidgnod's intriguing article (1997--see below) lists them, but does so without any bibliographical detail.