WORKING

Printed on one side of a 31.5 x 19.5 cm piece of Britannia laid paper. A fragile piece of ephemera, aged and with heavy wear to extremities. The text is complete, except for loss to the first letter ('P') of the first word ('Poor') on the top line. Text reads: 'Poor Rates. | THE GUARDIANS who were appointed a Committee to examine the Receipts of the Collectors, having compared a great number of Receipts with the Original Rate Book, have the satisfaction to inform the Inhabitants that they are fully satisfied with Messrs.

The present volume provides a fascinating sidelight into the operations of an archetypal Working Men's Club (Labour leader Ed Milliband was recently described as being 'more at home in Primrose Hill than Kenfig Hill') at what was perhaps the high point of such an institution, covering the period from just before the Great War to the end of the Depression of the 1930s. The accounts relate to two locations: the Cefn Institute and the Talbot Miners' Welfare Institute. The latter was founded in 1911 after a gift from the Talbot family, and closed in 1959.

23pp., 12mo. In good condition, lightly-aged, no wraps, disbound. Ends: 'This paper appeared in the April, May, and June Numbers of the "Ladies Treasury."' Three copies on COPAC, and four on OCLC WorldCat. No copy currently on market.

409 + [6]pp., 8vo. In blue cloth, with ornate design printed in silver on front cover, around a laid down photographic portrait of 'The late Alderman J. Rhodes, J.P. Founder of the Firm in 1824.' Spine reads: '1824. J. RHODES & SONS, LTD., 1901.' Text embossed on back cover. In fair condition, on aged paper, in lightly-worn and aged binding. Two leaves of addenda tipped-in, the first, with text printed in red, headed 'Notice. - American Competition!'; the second carrying text and illustration of the '"Rhodes" "Excelsior" Treadle Guillotine Shear'.

Both items with shelfmarks, stamps and labels of the Board of Education Reference Library, London. ONE: 'University of London Tutorial Classes for Working People | Report of the University of London Joint Committee for the Promotion of the Higher Education of Working People on the Work of the Four Years 1909-1913'. February 1914. 23 + [1]pp., 4to. Stitched. In fair condition, on aged and worn paper. The only copies on COPAC and OCLC WorldCat at the British Library and King's College London. TWO: 'University of London.

8pp., 12mo. Stitched. With stamps, label and shelfmark of the Board of Education Reference Library, otherwise in fair condition, on aged and worn paper. Scarce: no copy in the British Library, and the only copy on COPAC at the Bishopsgate Institute.

1p., 12mo. Text enclosed within a decorative border. In fair condition, on heavily aged and worn wove paper, with a couple of small holes. Printed on cheap paper, with rough untrimmed edges. Beneath the title is a poem in two columns, itself titled 'Directions for Reading it.': 'Hast thou no pity on my woes? | Dost thou at me turn up thy nose? | I'll make my declaration first, | So read straight forward and be curst. | But if thy heart to me incline, | O!

2pp., 8vo. In fair condition, on aged and worn paper, with slight discoloration to reverse of second leaf, which also bears traces of mount along one edge. Addressed, on reverse of second leaf, to 'The Attorney General | &c &c &c | J R G Graham'. This letter - an unusually detailed survival for a communication from one officer of state to another during this period - concerns a House of Commons debate on the 'Moral and Religious Education of the Working Classes', held on 28 February 1843, and extensively reported in The Times, 1 March 1843, pp.3-4.

Two pages, disbound from periodical with original wraps (before binding volume), 8vo, sl.chipped and browned edges, text complete.

Printed on one side of a piece of 76 x 55 cm paper. In good condition, lightly-aged. At head of document the words 'Official Notice' and the royal crest. Folded into a 22 x 9.5 cm packet, docketted on reverse 'Statutory Notice | and | Workshop and Factory Acts'. The document begins with 'Notices. | To be filled up and signed by the Occupier.', followed by the 'Abstract', in two columns of small type, under the sub-headings 'Sanitation", 'Accidents', 'Employment and Meal Hours', 'Holidays', 'Outworkers', 'Piece Work.

Surprisingly little appears to have been written about the public baths at 12 Nicolson Square, Edinburgh; with no references to it on the Scottish Archives Network. There is however an informative reference to the subject in Francis H. Groome's 'Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland' (1884): 'Good public baths, of various kinds and various extent, for the upper and the middle classes, are in several parts both of the city and its environs. Public baths for the working classes were long a desideratum, though earnestly desired by many of the working classes themselves.

An interesting and scarce item. There are no copies of any issues of this magazine on either OCLC WorldCat or COPAC, and there is no record whatsoever of 'Group IV' itself. Now acknowledged as one of Britain's finest landscape painters, Keith Grant joined the Working Men's College on finishing his National Service with the RAF; he then enrolled at Willesden Art School, before joining the Royal College of Art, where he studied under Colin Hayes, John Minton and Kenneth Rowntree. 22pp., 4to.

28 + [1] pp., 8vo. In fair condition, on aged and lightly-worn paper. P. 1 has the drophead title: 'STRAND UNION WORKHOUSE. | RETURN to an Order of the Honourable The House of Commons, | dated 25 June 1866; - for, | COPY "of the REPORT made by R. B. Crane, Esquire, Poor Law Inspector, to the Poor Law Board, after an Inquiry held by him on the 4th and 6th June 1866, into certain Allegations made by Matilda Beeton, in reference to the Treatment of the Sick in the Strand Union Workhouse." | Poor Law Board, 25 June 1866.

1p., 8vo. Aged and worn, having previously been folded into a tight packet, and laid down on a paper backing. Headed with the title, and neatly written in two columns. The poem consists of 60 lines arranged in six stanzas. The first and last stanzas indicate the tone.

Letter: 1p., 4to. Bifolium. Fair, on lightly-aged paper, with slight damage to second leaf, the reverse of which is addressed to 'Mr. Wm. Lovett | National Hall | 242, Holborn', with postmarks in black and red ink. Cooper begins: 'Dear Lovett | Please announce, in your bill that | "Mr.

12mo, 64 pp, on 16 bifoliums, loosely housed in a contemporary blue-cloth binder. Eleven of the thirteen letters signed, ten of them 'your sincere friend Fred', the other two being incomplete; some of the illustrations signed 'F. C.', and one 'F. Clarke'. Fair, on aged paper. A delightful, imaginative and striking correspondence, illustrated in coloured pen by an accomplished amateur cartoonist. Suitable for display. Clearly and neatly written, with each page filled to the edge (no margins) with a combination of Pooterish text and energetic illustrations [also a la W.W. Jacobs].

12mo, 1 p. Ten lines. Text clear and complete. Fair, on lightly-aged paper. He does not have 'sufficient information' to give an opinion on the question his unnamed correspondent refers to, 'namely whether a 5 days a week system would be preferable to Miners to an uniform 8 hours a day work'. The question is 'quite new' to him, and he 'must reserve an opinion till I know more about the subject'. Later in 1892 Shaw-Lefevre would be appointed First Commissioner of Works in Gladstone's government.

Folio, 22 pp, followed by 28 full-page plates of equipment designed to increase safety in the mills. Stitched. In original blue printed wraps. Text and plates clear and complete. Internally good, on aged paper. Wraps worn and chipped. Wraps with stamp and withdrawn stamp of University of Hull. No copy on COPAC or WorldCat.

4to, 1 p. Twenty-six lines. Text clear and complete. On grey paper. Small spike hole. Aged and lightly-creased. Describes the 'forbodings' which have been realised following 'the heavy rains and floods of the previous Autumn'. 'From 2000 to 3000 Pockets have already come to Market, and these are making, in samples of Sussex £8 to £9, the Cut, and in Kents £8. 8/. to £10. 10/. to £12;- mouldy and blighted, much lower. | Nothing choice in East or Mid Kents has, as yet, made its appearance, [...]'.

12mo, 4 pp. Disbound bifolium. Text clear and complete. On aged and foxed paper, with some wear and chipping. 'The distillers, merchants, and dealers; the landlords, the brewers, and the owners of licensed houses - not to say the government itself - actuated by interested motives, have all done honour at the shrine of Bacchus; and when it is understood that about a million of persons are enriched or supported by this nefarious traffic, no wonder that the happy soil of England should be deluged with this liquid fire.' Following slug: '(1s. 4d.

Apparently originally on a bifolium, the two pages are now each trimmed and on a separate leaf (the first 21 x 10.5 cm and the second 17.5 x 11 cm), and each laid down on a page removed from an album. The reverses are blank. On aged, discoloured paper. The first page is headed 'Great Western Cooking Depot, Specially opened for the Working Classes.

Printed on a sheet of wove paper roughly 37 x 24 cm. Fair, on lightly aged and stained paper, with slight wear to extremities. Illustration, roughly 9 cm square, shows Christ, a crown of thorns above his head and a crucifix behind him, blessing an orb which he holds in his hand. Attractively printed in two columns divided by decorative rule, with ornament beneath title. Text in small type, divided into sections titled 'A Letter of Jesus Christ', 'Christ's Cures and Miracles', 'King Agbarus's Letter to Christ', 'Our Saviour's Answer' and 'Lentulus's Epistle to the Senate of Rome'.

One page, 12mo. On grey paper. Very good, with two small labels from previous mounting adhering to edges. Beale's most notable work is perhaps 'Traits and Stories of the Welsh Peasantry' (1849). Reads '<...> Trusting you will forgive and forget my lack of Memory, believe me | Affectionately Yours | [signed] Anne Beale. | 68 Belsize Road. N.W. | January 22. 1896'. Beale died at this address in 1900.

On piece of paper roughly seven inches by four and a half. Good, though aged, and with small closed tear at foot. Evidence of previous mounting adhering to blank verso. Presumably in response to a request for an autograph. Seven lines of text, headed 'The "Half-Timer"', concerning the deleterious effects on health of child labour.

One page. Roughly 13 inches by 8 inches. In good condition, although slightly discoloured, creased from folding and with one very small closed tear. Reports the resolution of a meeting held at the Town Hall in Leek on 30 December 1901, that beginning on 1 January 1902 'the operatives shall give up the five minutes grace now allowed on entering Mills at 6.30 and after dinner'. Also states the working hours for week-days and Saturdays.