Mr. Robert Samuel Turner was born in 1818. Although engaged in commercial affairs from his youth he was a most enthusiastic book-collector, and at a very early age began to form that noble library, with which only a few collections of his time could vie in value, extent or condition. Mr. Turner principally directed his attention to the acquisition of rare Italian, French and Spanish books. His English books were not numerous, and there were but few German ones in the collection, but some of them were of much interest. He possessed one of the finest copies in existence of the first folio of Shakespeare's Plays, and an exceptionally good example of the Tewrdannck. He always endeavoured to obtain the best and choicest copies possible, and many of them, especially the French volumes, were clothed in beautiful bindings, bearing the arms or devices of Grolier, Maioli, Diana of Poitiers, Count Mansfeld, Cosmo de' Medici, Thomas Wotton, Longepierre, Count von Hoym, and other famous collectors. Mr. Turner resided for some years in Park Square West, Regent's Park, London, but in 1878 he removed to the Albany, Piccadilly. In anticipation of his change of residence he determined to part with a portion of his collection of French books, and on the valuation of the late M. Potier, of Paris, he offered it to an eminent French amateur en bloc for four thousand pounds. This offer was declined, and he sent the books to Paris to be sold by auction. The sale took place at the Salle Drouot on the 12th of March 1878, and the four following days, when the lots, seven hundred and seventy-four in number, realised three hundred and nineteen thousand one hundred francs—considerably more than three times the sum Mr. Turner was willing to take for them. After his death, which occurred at Brighton on the 7th of June 1887, the remainder of his library was disposed of in two sales by Messrs. Sotheby, Wilkinson and Hodge: the first on June 18th, 1888, and the eleven following days, and the second on November 23rd, 1888, and the thirteen following days. They realised respectively thirteen thousand three hundred and seventy pounds, thirteen shillings, and two thousand eight hundred and seventy-four pounds, seventeen shillings and sixpence. The prices obtained for the books, especially at the French sale, were very high. A dedication copy to Mademoiselle de Montpensier, with the signature of Charles de Lorraine on the title-page, of Recueil des Portraits et Éloges en vers et en prose (de personnages du temps par Mademoiselle de Montpensier et autres), Paris, 1659, with a morocco binding of the seventeenth century, ornamented with fleurs-de-lis, fetched fourteen thousand francs; La Fontaine's Fables Choisies, five volumes, Paris, 1678, 1679 and 1694, bound by Boyet, eleven thousand nine hundred and fifty francs; Les Fais de Jason, par Raoul Le Febvre, printed at Lyons about 1480, seven thousand six hundred francs; Le Livre appelle Mandeville, Lyon, 1480, six thousand two hundred and fifty francs; Les [OE]uvres de Guillaume Coquillant, Paris, 1532, five thousand four hundred and fifty francs; and Les [OE]uvres de MoliÈre, eight volumes, Paris, 1739, with additional plates, five thousand francs. Among the books at the English sales the exceptionally fine and large copies of the Tewrdannck, Nuremberg, 1517, and the Aldine Poliphili Hypnerotomachia, sold respectively for two hundred and fifty pounds and one hundred and thirty-seven pounds; a copy of Paesi Novamente Retrovati, Vicentia, 1507, with the title in facsimile, for one hundred and eighty-six pounds; and Shakespeare's Poems, 1640, for one hundred and six pounds. The first folio of Shakespeare Mr. Turner sold privately to an American collector. A Grolier binding realised three thousand francs; another binding with the devices of Diana of Poitiers, four thousand four hundred francs; a book from the library of Longepierre, two thousand five hundred francs; two sets of volumes with doublures by Boyet, respectively four thousand francs and three thousand nine hundred francs; and Rogers's Italy and Poems, with beautiful bindings by Bedford, sixty-one pounds.

Mr. Turner was an accomplished linguist, and he possessed a wide and accurate knowledge of the literary history and bibliography of France, Italy and Spain. He was also a collector of rare and beautiful bindings before the interest and value of these works of art were generally appreciated.