Joseph Gulston 1744/5-1786

Joseph GULSTON 1744/5-1786

Biographical Note

Son of Joseph Gulston, businessman, but brought separately up by his mother Mericas Sylva because their marriage was kept secret. Matriculated at Christ Church,Oxford 1763 but did not graduate; he spent time in Hamburg being trained in business. MP for Poole 1765-68. On inheriting his father's considerable fortune in 1766 he married Elizabeth Stepney and moved to Ealing Grove where their extravagant lifestyle forced them to sell and downsize in 1775, moving several times. Elizabeth died in 1780, the year in which he was re-elected MP, but after losing his seat in 1784 he moved in with his mother in London where he died soon afterwards in distressed circumstances. He left an unfinished biographical dictionary of foreign visitors to Britain, intended to be an adjunct to James Granger's Biographical history; this is now in the British Library, Add MSS 24353-6, 34280-5.

Books

Much of Gulston's spending went on books and prints, the collecting of which became his main passion in life. He assembled a large library along with around 70,000 prints, and was elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries. His financial problems led him to have to sell these collections in a series of sales (the books on 8 May 1783 and 27 May 1784; the prints over 38 days in January-March 1786).

Characteristic Markings

The first of Gulston's book sales promoted their "beauty, scarcity and preservation" and he liked his books to be in fine condition. He used several armorial binding stamps based on his crest (on an ostrich wing a bend sable charged with three roundels), applied on the covers or as a spine decoration. He sometimes had goatskin spine labels made stamped with one of these tools and the imprint date of the book.

Sources

• British Armorial Bindings.
• Alston, R. C., Inventory of sale catalogues ... 1676-1800, St Philip, 2010.
• Bibliotheca elegans & curiosa. A catalogue of the ... magnificent library of an eminent collector, [London, 1783].
• A catalogue of the remaining part of the curious and valuable library of an eminent collector, [London, 1784].
• Garnett, Richard, and S. J. Skedd. "Gulston, Joseph (1744/5–1786), book and art collector and connoisseur." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.