These scores have not been seen since 1901

As well as being an instrument maker and godfather of the early-music industry, Arnold Dolmetsch was an indefatigable collector of early books and musical manuscripts.

Since his death in February 1940, a large part of his library has remained in limbo.

It’s coming up for sale this week at Sotheby’s, with some items available for just a few hundred pounds. The catalogue specifies: ‘The last time some of the items appeared at auction was in 1901, when Dolmetsch became bankrupt and was forced to sell many of his early instruments and other musical treasures….’

Amongst other items which Dolmetsch collected, and which he and his family reconstructed, manufactured, and played, are the harpsichord, clavichord, virginals, recorder, transverse flute, Celtic harp, guitar, hurdy-gurdy, psaltery and viola d’amore. The library contains several extremely rare treatises on a number of these instruments, many of which have scarcely appeared on the antiquarian market before. There are of course celebrated treatises by household names, such as Praetorius, Morley, Mace, Mersenne, Quantz, Couperin, Pierre Rameau, Diderot, Adlung, Geminiani, Türk and Sanz. There is also a very important collection of early prints of Marin Marais, Domenico Scarlatti, Handel, Rameau, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach and, most interesting and rarest of all, Girolamo Frescobaldi. It is unlikely that such a collection of early editions of Playford and music for 17th-century dance will ever appear on the market again. 

Visit the catalogue here.