The two volumes of Giles Barber's The James A. De Rothschild Bequest at Waddesdon Manor. Printed Books and Bookbindings (Aylesbury: The Rothschild Foundation, 2013) describe the collection of 17th and 18th century books of Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild (1839-1898), which forms part of the bequest to the National Trust of Waddesdon Manor, Buckinghamshire, and its contents by Baron James de Rothschild (1878-1957).

[Henry] Graham Pollard (1903–1976), bookseller and bibliographer, spent some years studying and cataloguing the books at Waddesdon Manor, but on his death in 1976 the project was unfinished. Giles Barber, then Librarian at the Taylor Institution, accepted the invitation to reassess and complete the work.

Volume I consists of essays concerning Baron Ferdinand as a book collector, his books, the Paris booktrade in the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, bindings, binders and finishers, decorative styles and tools used. The volume also includes illustrated lists of decorative tools and a list of former owners of the books, with biographical notes.

Volume II describes the collection, arranged by author, title or subject. Descriptions include transcripts of title pages, lists of plates, details of provenance, descriptions of bindings and other notes on the works.