The Dolmetsch Collection of Early Music4–14 September 2021 • 2:00 PM BST • London
S
otheby’s is delighted to present the sale of manuscript and printed music from the library of the great Early Music pioneer Arnold Dolmetsch.
The highlights are legion, but pride of place goes to three quite exceptional manuscripts: a spectacular seventeenth-century manuscript of Italian and French lute music containing some 320 pieces, including Dowland’s Lachrimae pavan; a c.mid-eighteenth-century manuscript of German, Austrian and French lute music, including many pieces by the perhaps the greatest of all lutenists, Silvius Leopold Weiss; and a remarkable seventeenth-century manuscript of divisions for bass viol by Daniel Norcombe and Christopher Simpson.
Arnold Dolmetsch
Other treasures include an astonishing assemblage of early editions of Playford, two very rare prints of keyboard music by Frescobaldi, and some important early works on dance, including by Caroso, Negri, Feuillet and Pécour. And in addition to an important collection of printed editions of music by Marin Marais, Domenico Scarlatti, Handel, Bononcini, Rameau, François Couperin and C.P.E. Bach, the sale also includes celebrated theoretical works by Praetorius, Morley, Mace, Mersenne, Sanz, Geminiani, Quantz and others, as well as books from Dolmetsch’s own music reference library.
