<The fine Chess Library belonging to the late Dr. Bledow, containing between five and six hundred volumes, many of them most scarce and costly, is now in the market, and may be had complete, we understand, for a hundred pounds. It was Dr. Bledow's wish that this valuable collection of works upon the game of Chess should remain intact; and, by his desire, it was first offered to the President of the London Chess Club and to Mr. Staunton, but those gentlemen having declined the purchase, it is now open to the public. We have been favoured with a catalogue, and shall take occasion next week to point out some of the most rare and interesting works which it contains, in the hope of tempting the Committee of one of our Metropolitan Chess Clubs to avail themselves of this favourable opportunity of acquiring a splendid Club Library at very small cost.>

The London CC president was Augustus Mongredien. He'd played with Bledow in Berlin a few months prior to the latter's death.

That sounds so improbable.

Hatchards was opened in 1797 by English publisher and bookseller John Hatchards; it is the oldest bookstore in London.

Barnes & Noble was founded in 1873 by Charles M. Barnes in Wheaton, Illinois.

https://www.oldest.org/artliteratur....

< Daniel Willard Fiske, "the Book of the First American Chess Congress" :

Several Chess libraries have been collected in this country. We have seen that already in the last century, Lewis Rou possessed a number of works upon the game. In this century our information is more exact. Judge Fisk collected between one and two hundred volumes which were sold at his death. Professor Anderson, formerly of Columbia College, New York, has a Chess library of considerable size, composed in part of the duplicates belonging to the Bledow collection. Professor H. R. Agnel of West Point, Mr. H. P. Russ and Mr. F. B. Wightman of New York, Mr. Eugene B. Cook of Hoboken, and several others within a few years, have become interested in this branch of bibliomania. But the finest collection in the land, and one of the largest and most important in the world, is that of Professor George Allen of Philadelphia. It numbers over six hundred volumes, and is rapidly increasing. It contains many rare works, and among them books from the libraries of Mercier, Schumacher, and Lewis.>

https://www.chess.com/article/view/...

Note that Cook's collection is largely responsible for most of Princeton's library - much of which is online.

Please also note that by 1857 even the uncivilized heathens in the USA had libraries of over 500 books.