Anthony Hobson (book historian)

Anthony Hobson
Born	(1921-09-05) September 5, 1921
Died	July 12, 2014(2014-07-12) (aged 92)
Occupation(s)	Auctioneer, historian
Known for	Book history, head of Sotheby's book department, bibliophily scholar

Anthony Robert Alwyn Hobson, FBA (5 September 1921 – 12 July 2014), was a distinguished British auctioneer and historian with a specialization in book history.

The son of Geoffrey Dudley Hobson—who acquired the auction firm Sotheby's in 1909 and was himself a respected scholar of book history—Anthony Hobson received his education at Eton College followed by New College, Oxford. Afterward, he trained at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and served with the Scots Guards during the Second World War. His military duties included intelligence assignments and deployment in Italy, culminating in the rank of captain before his demobilization in 1946.

Career

Beginning his tenure at Sotheby's in 1947 within the book department, Hobson swiftly advanced to become both head of the department and a director by 1949. He was instrumental in overseeing significant auctions, notably the medieval manuscript collection of Dyson Perrins between 1958 and 1960, as well as the Phillipps Collections in 1965, working closely alongside John Carter.

Hobson’s scholarly work encompassed delivering prestigious lectures such as the Sandars Lectures (1974–1975) centered on sixteenth-century Italian bibliophiles, the Lyell Lectures at Oxford (1990–1991) which explored Renaissance collectors Jean Grolier and Diego Hurtado de Mendoza, and the A.S.W. Rosenbach Lectures at the University of Pennsylvania (1990), focusing on English book collecting during the early nineteenth century.

A member of the Roxburghe Club from 1982 until his passing, Hobson also held the presidency of the Bibliographical Society from 1977 to 1979 and was honored with its Gold Medal in 1992. Furthermore, he led the Association Internationale de Bibliophilie between 1985 and 1999.

In tribute to his impact on bibliophily, Bookbindings & Other Bibliophily: Essays in Honour of Anthony Hobson was published in 1994, followed by “A Garland for Mr. Hobson: Anthony Hobson at 90” in 2011. Additionally, he was awarded the title of Cavaliere by the Order of Merit of the Republic of Italy.

Anthony Hobson died on 12 July 2014.

Selected publications

• French and Italian Collectors and Their Bindings (Oxford: The Roxburghe Club, 1953)
• The Literature of Bookbinding. London: National Book League/Cambridge University Press, 1954
• Waddesdon Manor: The Library. London: Shenval Press, 1959
• Great Libraries (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1970)
• Apollo and Pegasus: An Enquiry into the Formation and Dispersal of a Renaissance Library (Amsterdam: Gerard Th. Van Heusden, 1975)
• The Art and Life of J.W. Waterhouse RA, 1849–1917. New York: Rizzoli in association with Christie’s, 1980
• Cyril Connolly As a Book Collector. Edinburgh: Tragara Press, 1983
• Humanists and Bookbinders: The Origins and Diffusion of the Humanistic Bookbinding, 1459–1559 (Cambridge University Press, 1989). Winner of Premio Felice Feliciano
• "Two Roman Bindings." Bodleian Library Record 15 (1996): 372–382
• Renaissance Book Collecting: Jean Grolier and Diego Hurtado de Mendoza, their Books and Bindings (Cambridge University Press, 1999)
• "Early Binding Studies and Chimaeras." The Book Collector 60 (Autumn 2011): 385–399