View source for Joseph Smith 1673/4?-1770

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===[[name::Joseph]] [[name::SMITH]] [[date of birth::1673;1674|1673/4]]?-[[date of death::1770]]===

====Biographical Note====
Little is known of Smith's early life, but he was educated at [[education::Westminster School]]. He went to [[location::Venice]] in 1700 as a junior partner in the merchant banking firm of Thomas Williams, and developed a successful and varied career as a banker, merchant, art dealer and bookseller. He commissioned paintings and became an agent for Canaletto. He was British Consul at Venice 1744-60 and is often referred to as Consul Smith.

====Books====
Smith was involved in brokering sales of books and manuscripts for wealthy patrons - the earliest such connection being with [[associates::Thomas Coke]], Earl of Leicester in 1717 - and he also amassed significant collections himself, of which several catalogues were issued between the 1720s and 1750s. [[crossreference::Richard Rawlinson 1690-1755|Richard Rawlinson]] noted a visit to Smith's library in 1725, where he saw over 200 incunabula, many printed on vellum. In the 1730s he established a publishing and bookselling business in Venice, in partnership with [[associates::Giambattista Pasquali]]. During the second quarter of the 18th century Smith was acquiring books from all over Europe. In 1755 Pasquali published for him the ''Bibliotheca Smithiana'', a huge catalogue running to over 900 pages and listing over 12,000 items. Its contents were mostly bought by George III in 1762 for £10,000, and became a foundational building block of what is now the King's Library in the [[present repository::British Library]]. After this sale, Smith continued to collect books and manuscripts, which were dispersed in a series of sale in London after his death, mostly in 1773.

====Characteristic Markings====
Smith used a series of engraved armorial bookplates, Franks 27323-5 (usually found in books other than those sold to George III).

====Sources====
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*Alston, R. C., ''Inventory of sale catalogues ... 1676-1800'', St Philip, 2010.
*De Ricci, Seymour, ''English collectors of books and manuscripts'', Cambridge, 1930.
*Gambier Howe, E. R. J., ''Franks bequest. Catalogue of British and American book plates bequeathed ... by Sir Augustus Wollaston Franks'', London, 1903-4.
*Hellinga, Lotte, The ''Bibliotheca Smithiana'', in G. Mandelbrote and B. Taylor (eds), ''Libraries within the Library'', 2009, 261-79.
*Morrison, Stuart L. [https://doi-org.ezp.lib.cam.ac.uk/10.1093/ref:odnb/25871 "Smith, Joseph (1673/4?–1770), book collector and patron of the arts."] Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. 
*Morrison, Stuart L., Records of a bibliophile: the catalogues of consul Joseph Smith, ''The Book Collector'' 43 (1994), 27-58.
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Joseph}}
[[Category:Businessmen]]
[[Category:Diplomats]]
[[Category:Libraries Sold at Auction]]
[[Category:Libraries Sold at Retail Sale]]
[[Category:Bookplates and Labels]]
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