SILVERSMITH

3pp., 4to. Bifolium. Good, on lightly-aged paper. Addressed, with broken seal in black wax, on verso of second leaf, to 'James Montgomery Esqr'. 80 lines of text. He has been twice that day to Montgomery's Sheffield mansion the Mount 'to enquire about you - the first time in vain, and the second nearly so. There they are much as heretofore - but Miss Sarah meaning to write sermons you may have it before this.' Roberts declares: 'I think the present great Lions of the town are myself and mad dogs - perhaps you may think that they might be included under one head - yes - if that head was yours!

The volume ('White & Pike's Diary 1880') is a folio, in green cloth gilt. Recently rebacked and renovated, with one leaf of advertisements under archival paper. A few leaves have had the slips laid down on them cut away or removed. Pages 1-20 and 77-93 carry advertisements, mostly for the Birmingham metal and jewellery trades. The 269 slips of rubbings, together with 37 slips with pencil drawings of designs and engravings, are mostly laid down on the rectos of twenty-five leaves of the diary proper. One loose leaf carries rubbings of designs around monogram initials.

1. Physical Description: 8vo, 20 pp. Ten loose leaves of watermarked laid paper. Aged, and with chipping to extremities causing occasional minor loss to text. In a neat, close Chancery hand. The leaves would appear to be sequential, with no evidence that any are lacking from the series. Docketing in a modern hand in pencil at head of recto of first leaf, which also has laid down on it a fragment of a small type-written slip: 'B/26 | <...> AL - SERIES B. | <...> 1681 - DECEMBER 1681'. Pp.1-10 (on Leaves One to Five) concern gold; pp.11-20 (on Leaves Six to Ten) concern silver.A.