PENZANCE

On one side of a skin of vellum (roughly 42 x 58 cm). In fair condition, lightly aged and worn. Ruled with red lines, and with ornate initial capital and decorative pattern at head. In English. Signature cut away from gutter and tab removed. The document relates to eight messuages in the Parish of St Clement Danes, Middlesex; three messuages and lands in Penzance, Penryn, Madron, Gwendron, Mave, Gluvias, Scancrett and Grade, in Cornwall; and lands in Wilmston and Tavistock, Devon. Scan on application.

12mo (leaf dimensions 18 x 11 cm): 2 pp. Twenty-one lines of text, complete and legible. On aged paper with some wear at head. Casting interesting light on the workings of the provincial Victorian booktrade.

On piece of paper five inches by six and a half. Good, with slight smudging to a couple of lines and a strip of archival tape on blank reverse. The four lines of text, in a different hand from the signature, were presumably written out by the purchaser, in order to indemnify himself in case of dispute. Reads: 'I hereby certify that these four papers signed respectively by Nelson, Hardy, St Vincent & Trowbridge have descended to me through my grandfather Richard Longfield Davies.-' Signature reads 'R. Hedges Davies | Nover. 10th. 1883.'