Don Saltero — (James Salter) | London's first public museum

Don Saltero — (James Salter)

A Catalogue of the Rarities To be Seen at Don Saltero's Coffee-House in Chelsea. To which is added, A Compleat [sic] List of the Donors thereof. The Twelfth Edition.  London: [N.p., 1741]

8vo (190 x 115 mm). 16, [2] p., list of benefactors at end; inner margins repaired or reinforced with tissue, minor browning to a few leaves, one or two stray spots, minor offsetting. Stitched, modern grey wrappers.  

Spanish playing cards, Mary Queen of Scots' pincushion, beads made of the bones of St. Anthony of Padua, and more…

"James Salter, dubbed 'Don Saltero', was a master of the the allied arts of barbering and dentistry. He opened a coffeehouse in London in 1695. It was stocked with artifacts that were primarily discarded or duplicates from the great scientific collection of Salter's primary benefactor, Sir Hans Sloane. Don Saltero's Coffee House was London's first public museum. The more impressive assemblage of the official British Museum, also based on Sloane's accumulations, did not open until 1753" (CCC, p. 37).  

Rare.

REFERENCE:

ESTC T100192; CCC, pp. 36-37