Fonds F2047 - Alister Mathews fonds

Alister William Mathews was born in Watford, Hertfordshire, England on April 7th, 1907. He was the son of noted Australian ornithologist and rare book collector Gregory M. Mathews, CBE (1876-1949). His name is often misspelt but can be verified as Alister Mathews through his advertisements in 'Master Drawings'. As a young man Mathews was involved in the private press movement, founding The Grayhound Press in 1926 through which he published his friend Monk Gibbon.

He briefly taught modern languages at Bedales School in Hampshire from 1932 to 1935. According to school records, Mathews was also in charge of the student printing press. In 1935 he married Germaine Gaillard (1905-1999), who also worked at Bedales. After their marriage, the couple apparently moved to Grenoble, France with the intention of taking English students as lodgers.

Mathews' career as a rare book and print dealer appears to have begun in the early 1940s in Clooney Beg, Swanage, Dorset. He established a relationship with the British Museum as early as 1943, when he sold three 18th-century drawings to the institution. Sometime after 1947 Mathews moved to Poole, Dorest. He later settled in nearby Bournemouth, where he lived from 1968 until his death in 1985. Mathews conducted business by appointment from his home and through illustrated sale catalogues. As late as 1949 he was still identified as a dealer in rare books; however, after World War II he increasingly specialized in European and British drawings and watercolors. A significant dealer in this field, many of the works he handled are now represented in major museums, including the British Museum; Metropolitan Museum of Art, Morgan Library & Museum, and Victoria & Albert Museum. Mathews died in Bournemouth in 1985.