STATIONERS'

[Two items] 6pp., 12mo. A nicely-printed keepsake, stitched into green card covers, with 'SIR THOMAS PHILLIPPS | 1792-1872' in gilt on front. In very good condition. Oval window in cover revealing a profile portrait of Phillipps, which is printed in colour and tipped-in onto the first recto, which is bordered in brown. Text in brown, with title-page reading: 'Stationers' Hall | Phillipps Centenary Dinner | 4th July 1972 | Chairman | The Rt. Hon. Viscount Eccles | P.C.

The four plates (each 29 x 23.5 cm) are loose and unframed, in fair condition, aged and worn, with no margins, chipping to the edges, and with the corners cut off at a diagonal. Each title written in pencil in a contemporary hand on the reverse of the print, each with a price of '6d'. The subjects are not depicted in unattractive style, and are certainly not grotesques, but they are shown as 'simple', untroubled individuals, with the usual happy, gleaming brown faces and shiny white teeth.

The seven items in very good condition, lightly aged. From the firm's archive, and produced to its highest standards. Partner John Cheney described himself on his calling card (not present) as a 'Printer in Gold, Silver, and Colours', with 'Specialities in the best class of work', and the company's high standards attracted clients from London's West End. For more about the firm see 'John Cheney and his descendants, printers in Banbury since 1767' (1936), and the Victoria County History volume for the County of Oxford, Banbury Hundred.

1p., 12mo. In good condition, on lightly-aged paper. Headed 'Mr. Cromp 21 Feby 1777 | Bought of John Muggeridge'. The first and most expensive of the six items, at £1 6s 0d, is 'a Book 6 qn fine Medium ruld. 9 lines Vellum <?> lind marbled & Alphabet'. Other items include '1/2 pind red Ink & Stone bottle', 'blotting paper', '1/2 pound supfine [sic] wax' and '400 best Quills'. The six items total £1 14s 6d. Docketed 'No.