SONS

Silk & Sons were one of the leading coach builders of Victorian London, Robert Silk (born c.1797, fl.1871) already being established in Long Acre by 1851. Robert Silk was succeeded by his son William (born 1824), who in his turn took his sons William junior (1853-1911) and Robert John (1858-1934) into the business. The firm continued to trade at least until 1907, when the Long Acre premises were sold.The present collection, mainly compiled by the elder William Silk, contains around 350 items relating to carriages, coaches, coaching and coach building, dating from between 1750 and 1893.

3pp., 12mo. On bifolium. In good condition, on lightly-aged paper. Docketed at head of first page. She begins by explaining that at her 'interview with Mr. Bell on the 8th. he suggested an alteration in an important sentence, giving me the alternative of taking the MS. home with me or of correcting the sentence in the proofs. At the time I thought the latter course would be the best, but it occurs to me that it would save expence if the correction was made now.' She asks Cazenove to 'ask Mr. O'Connor if he would kindly alter the words in accordance with the enclosed [not present]'.

4pp., 16mo. Bifolium. Very good, on lightly-aged paper, with slight traces of glue to fold edge. The first two pages carry the 'Prospectus', beginning: 'NO Scientific subject can be so important to Man as that of his own life. No knowledge can be so incessantly appealed to by the incidents of the every day, as the knowledge of the processes by which he lives and acts. At every moment he is in danger of disobeying laws which, when disobeyed, may bring years of suffering, decline of powers, premature decay.

1p., 12mo. In fair condition, on lightly aged and creased green paper. Fifteen lines, including slug, in a variety of types and point sizes. The item reads, in full: 'UNITED IRISH LEAGUE. | Postponed Meeting | will be held | ON FRIDAY, JANUARY 21, | at the | NEW MIDLAND ARMS, | CLIFTON STREET, DERBY, | To form a Branch of the above. | Chair to be taken at 8 p.m. prompt, by | Mr. J. ROWAN, Derby, I.L.P. | Amongst those to speak will be Messrs. James | Reilly, J. R. Rowan, I.N.F., D. Brady, | Desmond O'Connor, and others. | God Save Ireland. | J. W.

1p., 4to. Good, on aged and lightly-creased paper. 'The Duchess of Hamilton will be much obliged if Messrs G. Routledge & Sons will send her the newest edition of | A History of British Birds | by Rev. F. O. Morris | Newly revised corrected & enlarged | @ £4 - 10 - 0 | To above address -'.

On one side of a 18.5 x 20.5 cm piece of paper, the head of the letter, with address and date, having been cut away. In fair condition, on lightly-aged paper. The letter reads: 'Dear Gilmer, | Here is the "Reise - Kaiser"; - the Reader's Report, 2 more illustrations, a preface, & a 2nd appendix, will follow by later post. I have been kept in the country till to-day. | Yrs v. truly | [signed] E Rhys'.

6pp., folio. Disbound. In fair condition, on aged high-acidity paper, with a few short closed tears to edges. Title leaf (with 'Price 1d.') carrying 'Table of Contents' on reverse; followed by three pages of transcripts of letters (paginated 1-3); with the reverse of the final leaf carrying the details of the pamphlet for display on its being folded into a packet. The correspondence relates to the Mission of Cardinal Rampolla, travelling from the Vatican to England to present the Pope's congratulations on the fiftieth anniversary of Queen Victoria's accession to the throne.

[1] + 30pp., folio. In brown printed wraps. Worn and aged, with some damp staining to the first dozen leaves. Printed on art paper, and with the thirty pages of the catalogue filled with illustrations of every aspect of the firm's stock, from 'Composition enriched pine panel mouldings' to 'Fibrous plaster cornices'. The price list is printed on 4pp., folio, in a bifolium, as is one supplement of 'Additional fibrous plaster cornices & bands and composition ornaments'. The other supplement is a fold out poster (44 x 28.5 cm) carrying illustrations of 'Cast lead word'.

The collection is of great interest, providing a mass of information regarding the Victorian building trade. The owner of the volume, W. H. Dudley, would appear to be a War Office official, and, as described at the end of this entry, it contains manuscript details of two contracts. The ten printed schedules - totalling [34 + 17 + 14 + 10 + 12 + 13 + 12 + 10 + 16 + 11 =] 149 pp., folio - are uniform in design and format, bound together in a contemporary half-binding, with brown leather spine and corners, and marbled boards. All ten are in good condition, on lightly-aged paper, in worn binding.

16pp., 16mo. Unbound and stitched. On worn and aged paper, with loss to bottom outside corner of title leaf; spine strengthened with contemporary gummed paper. On reverse of title is a page of advertisements for 'Household Tracts for the People'.

4to, 32 pp. On shiny art paper. Text and photographs clear and complete. Aged and worn, with slight rust damage from staples. The cover, showing the influence of Art Deco, is printed in green and black, the rest in black.

12mo, 2 pp. Bifolium. With two pages of lists of plants by Shepherd. Good, on aged paper. In remains of original envelope. The letterhead advertises that the firm also has a branch at Ashford. Begins: 'We can supply you with the shrubs &c you kindly enquire about at the Prices named on other side - your orders for which will have our careful attention'. Three are marked with a cross, being 'very critical trees to move' for which the firm 'can undertake no responsibility as to their success'. Prices given for fifteen types, from 'Spruce Trees - 4 ft.

8vo, 20 pp. In original blue printed wraps, with publisher's advertisement ('List of Military Works') on back. Clear and complete. On aged paper, with wear and slight marking to wraps. Two appendices.

4to, 4 pp. Bifolium. Printed in brown on watermarked laid paper. Fair, on aged paper. An exercise in Wardour Street English, foreshadowing in some respects the Leadenhall Press with its mish-mash of fonts and point sizes, and its antiquated decorative rules. The fair will be opened by 'Maister Christophere Sykes, Member of Parlymente for ye East Ryding of ye Countie of Yorkshire'. Names of the great and good expected to attend. Vignettes of a tudor fair, three medieval women, two jousting knights, a posy, chairmen, two men in eighteenth-century garb, a dinner table.

4to, 4 pp. Bifolium. Printed in brown on watermarked laid paper. Fair, on aged paper. An exercise in Wardour Street English, foreshadowing in some respects the Leadenhall Press with its mish-mash of fonts and point sizes, and its antiquated decorative rules. The fair will be opened by 'Maister Christophere Sykes, Member of Parlymente for ye East Ryding of ye Countie of Yorkshire'. Names of the great and good expected to attend. Vignettes of a tudor fair, three medieval women, two jousting knights, a posy, chairmen, two men in eighteenth-century garb, a dinner table.

4to, 2 pp. On the firm's letterhead. Twenty lines. Text clear and complete. Fair, on lightly-aged paper.

8vo landscape album, 21 x 26 cm. Morocco leather binding. Marbled endpapers; all edges gilt. 'TRUSLOVE & HANSON' stamped on the front board in gilt. Internally good, sound and tight; in fair binding with wear to hinges and corners and minor damp staining. Truslove & Hanson was always a fashionable bookshop, placing an emphasis on presentation. It was acquired by W. H. Smith & Son in 1923; the same firm acquired the Cambridge booksellers Bowes & Bowes in 1953.

The collection, consisting of eighteen items, would appear to derive from J. L. Cocker, to whom one of the receipts is made out. Eight posters, all but the last in fair condition, aged and lightly worn; and all but Number printed in black and white. Items Three and Eight have the firm's address repeatedly printed on the reverse, so that the particular timepieces in which the customer is interested can be cut away from the sheet. ONE (56 x 43.5 cm).

4to bifolium (leaf dimensions 26 x 20.5 cm). The notification certificate is on the recto of the first leaf, and Highton's letter is on the recto of the second. Versos of both leaves blank. Good, on lightly aged and creased paper, with 5 cm closed tear to margin of second leaf caused by removal of letter from stub, traces of which still adhere to the verso of the second leaf. The certificate is tastefully printed in black, with the Society's crest in red in the top left-hand corner.

Two copies: one a revised proof, the other out-of-series, with manuscript additions to the list of subscribers. Both copies 8vo, 25 pp, in original grey printed wraps. Both copies internally tight and clean, in grubby wraps. Attractively printed on thick laid paper, with the wraps printed in red and black. Pp.7-9 of the proof have been deleted, with the manuscript instruction, p.7: 'Take out this & the passages marked on next two pages & insert MS. sent'.

8vo: 2 pp. The 'idea is worth Consideration', but Blackwood 'can hardly see how any large sale cann be depended upon, so as to repay the expense of printing advertising &c.' Asks that Morris send him 'one sermon, to indicate style, length & to estimate cost'. Asks what size of paper should be used. Notices that Morris's works are 'principally on natural history'. Likes the idea of 'the <?> natural history', and 'will take an early opportunity of looking at it'. This notable London publisher is a surprising omission from BBTI.

Two pages, 12mo. Good, with minor effects of damp. Text clear and entire. Twenty-five lines. Harraden has found an old acquaintance, Mrs Charles Routledge ('the widow of the son of Colonel Robert Warne Routledge'), in 'very distressing circumstances; she had been very ill from blood poisoning in the leg, had been in hospital, & in the work house'. Mrs Routledge has 'done her very best [...] to fight an adverse fate', working hard 'as a house keeper, maid of all work, servant of lodging house'.

8vo, 24 pp. Stitched as issued. Well printed on good laid paper. Creased and aged. A programme, describing, often in detail, the forty-six exhibits, in the various rooms, from 'Photographs illustrative of the Coronation Naval Review, 1902' by Dr W. J. S. Lockyer, to 'Examples illustrating the Scientific and Educational Applications of the Bioscope.' Exhibitors include Sir Oliver Lodge, Sir William Crookes, Rutherford and Soddy ('The condensation of the radio-active emanations of radium and thorium by liquid air.') and the Solar Physics Observatory, South Kensington.

Both items good on lightly-aged paper. Letter One (12mo, 2 pp): Having considered the question of the fee for a piece of writing, he does 'not know very well what to say. Perhaps you might give me what the Hibbert Journal pays its contributors.' (Docketed in pencil in the margin: 'What is that?') He 'could do the work when the College Session is over - at the end of March'. Asks to be informed 'what is necessary of the arrangements', and to be sent 'the sheets of the book.

8vo, 1 p. Good, on lightly-aged paper. In response to a 'kind note', Samuelson informs Sonnenschein that 'the next number of our Review, which will appear shortly, is to deal with the Irish question'. He has 'a very copious list of publications' and although he would have welcomed Sonnenschein's assistance, he hardly thinks it is worth his while at the present time to trouble himself over the matter, 'for reasons which I will explain to you some day'.

12mo, 1 p. Good, on lightly-aged paper. Thanking them for the cheque, and returning the 'form of permission to reprint the four poems, signed' (not present).

8vo: 4 pp, surrounding a bifolium carrying 4 pp of photographs. Stitched. Printed on laid paper and nicely produced. Lightly creased, and with the covers grubby and lightly-spotted. Begins 'CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS, their London house having outgrown its quarters in Regent Street, have moved to twenty-three Bedford Square where they are occupying one of the old Adam houses, the lease of which they have purchased from the Bedford estate.' The four photographs consist of an exterior view, the 'Manager's office', 'One of the Adam fireplaces' and 'Entrance hall'.

Printed on one side of a piece of thick wove paper, roughly 11.5 x 9 cm. Dimensions of image 9.5 x 6.5 cm. A little grubby, but good. An attractive production, with a mediaeval-style illustration of two flying fish flanking a tree on the branch of which is hung a shield with the words 'Books & Prints | Old & New. | 84, Nassau Street | New York. | 14 York Street | Covent Garden | London.' In gothic type at foot: 'J.

12mo. In original brown-cloth binding, with 'South Place Discourses' blind-stamped on spine. Internally tight, on aged and spotted paper. In worn, discoloured binding. Preceded by title and contents leaves to the collection. Waterlow and Sons are named as printers in six items: Item One at their premises in Great Winchester Street; Items Three, Four, Five, Six and Seven at London Wall. The first six items are by Conway. ONE: 'Intellectual Suicide', 16 pp. TWO: 'The First Love Again. A Discourse Delivered in the Church of the Redeemer, Cincinnati, Ohio, Nov.

Both items concern John Littlejohn's 'British Watercolour Painting and Painters of Today' (Pitman, 1931). Note of 18 December 1930: 12mo, 1 p. Five lines. Good on lightly aged paper. Thanking the publishers for sending 'the prints of my drawings [...] they are really very well done!' Letter of 13 February 1931: 12mo,1 p. Eight lines. Good, on lightly creased paper. Thanking the publishers for four presentation copies of the book. 'It is a handsome book and the drawings are well reproduced: I am particularly pleased with those of my own drawings.' Two items,