Book Trade History

12mo, 1 p. 7 lines of closely-written text. Clear and complete. On aged and slightly-grubby paper. He has received their letter regarding his 'Life of Thackeray', and appreciates 'the reason for your delay in deciding whether or no to issue a cheap edition. Undoubtedly the inclusion of my book in a series would benefit us both, & I hope Mr Lee may be able to make me an offer.'

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).

12mo, 1 p. Twelve lines of text. Clear and complete. On aged and grubby paper. A formal letter in the third person. He has 'received with surprise the enclosed invoice. [not present] He has given no orders for any copies of the work & must therefore decline to accept the parcel, should it have been sent out to him in Australia.' If it is 'lying at his London house' he will forward it to the firm 'on his return home'.

All four items 12mo bifoliums; the first of three pages and the other three of four. Text of all four clear and complete. Good on aged and lightly-creased paper. Minor water staining at head of first leaf of first item. Letter One (28 lines): Discussing the delivery of 'the alterations & additions' of the two lives, and the correction of the proofs by Routledge's reader. 'I shall of course require some payment for my revision of the two books, & you have not said anything on this head.

Plain card, roughly 8.5 x 11 cm. Five lines of text. A little grubby, but good. Asking for his manuscript, so that he can 'correct the proof of the Introduction to Crashaw. It was written so many years ago that I can't always recall what I wrote'.

On one side of a piece of paper roughly 8 x 12.5 cm. Good, lightly aged. Reads ' Henry Colburn | 13 Gt Marlborough Street | Martin Arthur Shee | Peter North 22 Soho Square | Dominic Colnaghi'. Fragment of docketed manuscript record of the case on the reverse: '<...> 830 | <...>nes O'Connor | <...>ent Case | <...>y 12th. 1841'.

4to, 1 p. Good, on lightly aged and creased paper with minor rust stain from paperclip at head. Letterhead, in light and dark blue, featuring globe and the mottos 'BOOKSELLERS TO THE WORLD' and 'STOCK OF NEARLY THREE MILLION VOLUMES'. Thirteen lines of text. Bradshaw is clearly unhappy at the price asked for a copy of Cox's 'Memorials of Old Derbyshire'. 'The writer would point out that we received six reports regarding this book from various clients, but in no case at a price allowing us to quote below 15/-.

4to, 2 pp. Postscript ends abruptly ('I have read innumerable books on Italy, <...>'), suggesting a page lacking. Good, on lightly aged and creased paper. An interesting letter shedding light on Gollancz's attitude to the practice of sending out advance copies of books for review. Addressed to 'My dear Daniel'. Further to a report he has received from 'Hilary' (his nephew Hilary Rubinstein) regarding a conversation with George 'at John Coates's party', Gollancz assures him that there is no 'personal reason' why he is no longer receiving 'a stream of advance copies'.

12mo, 2 pp. 9 lines of text. With mourning border. Good, on lightly-aged paper. He is glad that Macmillan and 'Mr Doulton' are coming to dine with him, but sorry that they 'will be obliged to leave so soon; but it cannot be helped'.

12mo, 1 p. Four lines of text. Good, on aged paper with watermarked date '<...>864'. 'If the "Macaulays" have not gone yet, would you send them here, directed to me.' Trevelyan was nephew of the historian Thomas Babington Macaulay, of whom he published a biography in 1880.

12mo: 1 p. 12 lines of text. An bifolium, addressed on the reverse of the second leaf, which carries Colburn's seal, with his initials, in black wax. Good, on aged Whatman paper with watermarked date 1837. The drift of the letter is doubtful as it is written in an extremely difficult hand. Colburn will call upon the recipient 'presently'. He then makes a request regarding 'Miss Edgeworth', whose letter should be 'sent to my care' before being 'forwarded to its destination'.

12mo, 2 pp. 13 lines of text. Good, on light-aged paper. He has been 'asked by many persons for copies of his speech at the Cambge. Union Socy.', and if 'Messrs. Macmillan cared to print it, he would revise it, no report having been correct'. He wonders 'whether the whole proceedings should not be added, with some of the newspaper letters which have been carried'. Milnes was created Baron Houghton in 1863. In 1866 Macmillan published 'The Cambridge Union Society, Inaugural Proceedings', edited by G. C. Whiteley.

On a piece of board roughly 45 x 30 cm. Foxed and discoloured, with the extremities chipped and worn, with loss and closed tears affecting the illustration's border, which is in gold in the style of the carved decoration of eighteenth-century furniture. The illustration itself, roughly 36 x 25 cm, is clear and undamaged. It features full-length depictions, each around 29 cm high, of two stylish figures: on the left a behatted lady, fan in hand, elegantly attired in eighteenth-century costume of orange compere-fronted gown and full yellow skirt.

The calendar proper (clear and complete on aged paper) consists of 12 unpaginated 8vo pages, with photographs and some facsimiles of handwriting on the rectos and the calendar itself, with memorable radical dates, on the versos. Photographs of Edward Bellamy, 'Principal Writers of "The Clarion" ', Tom Mann, William Morris, and Alfred Russel [sic] Wallace, and Count Leo Tolstoy. The calendar is encased in a loose 8vo bifolium, with four unpaginated printed pages. It is titled 'The Labour Annual Calendar: 1896. Edited by Joseph Edwards'.

Printed on one side of a piece of thick wove paper, 21 x 17.5 cm. At the head of the page is the engraving, enclosed in an oval 12.5 cm high and 15 cm wide. A clear impression of a scarce print, on grubby, spotted paper. Within the border is engraved in red 'Part of Christs Hospital taken from the Stewards Office 1765.' According to the six lines of copperplate text at the foot of the page 'It was 129 feet long and 31 feet in breadth, [...] It was furnished with Books at the expence of £556 . 10s of which £400 were given by the founder, and the remainder by Dr.

Novelist and editor Chambers Journal, Cornhill Magagzine (1883-1896), 1830-1898 (see DNB). Total 17 pages, 8vo, some letters dated by another hand (Colles?), on most Payn has put day and month but no year. A difficult hand. Subjects include: Australian mail; agreement with Tillotson (syndication); rights for Austrlia and India for something, "the neighbourhood of Sheffield would be the only forbidden ground"; "we must not dun Mr C"; "still reading [Norris'?] book; it is rather thin - . ..

Literary Characters'. 12mo (leaf dimensions roughly 18 x 12.5 cm): 32 pp. Stitched with brown thread. Fore-edge and top-edge rough. Unbound as issued. Very good. Cartoon in red ink of man seated at typewriter on front cover, and another, in black ink, of a hatted-figure skulking away with a walking stick held behind his back on back cover. Initial note, with publisher's colophon, on p.2: 'This series of Literary Characters appeared in Now & Then numbers 77-87 and is here reprinted by Jonathan Cape Limited for their friends | Christmas 1954'.

8vo: 1 p. Good, on lightly-creased paper, with a faint 4cm pink stain in the right-hand margin. Reads 'Many thanks for the copy of your interesting paper, and the kindly reference to my novel.'

4to: 1 page. Twenty-one lines of text. Good, on creased and lightly-aged paper. An impressively-considered letter, declining Mrs Steward's manuscript 'I had rather be a Doorkeeper'. 'As you point out, Christ Church, Newgate Street, is a near neighbour of Amen House, and its ruins are a pathetic sight.

Printed on one side of a piece of cream paper, roughly 33.5 x 25.5 cm. Laid down on card. Clear and complete, with a good impression of the plate (22.5 x 17.5 cm), on lightly-aged, grubby paper, with slight wear to extremities. Presumably produced for display in a shop window. The title ('THE LIFE AND WORK OF | W. HOLMAN HUNT. | BY ARCHDEACON FARRAR.') at head, and 'SPECIMEN PLATE.' at foot, in large orange letters; the rest printed in black. Beneath the plate: 'THE SHADOW OF DEATH. | BY PERMISSION OF MESSRS. T. AGNEW & SONS. | LONDON: J. S. VIRTUE & CO.

On one side of a piece of wove paper 19 x 14.5 cm, and with the image extending almost to the edges. Lightly aged and creased, but good overall. An usual design, with the coat of arms within a fleece held up by two figures of Hercules, both on pedestals, the one of the left marked 'HUMUS' and that on the right 'SUMUS'. The fleece folds over the left-hand Hercules's right shoulder and reads 'LE CULTE EN' with 'DIFFICULTE' over the left-hand Hercules's left shoulder. Topping the whole design, above a coronet, is a harpy, and at the foot of the paper is 'Hereson de Brecksel'.

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'.

Both items very good, each printed on one side only of a piece of thin shiny card, dimensions 11 x 15 cm. The arrangement of the text is the same in both cases, but one is printed in blue and green, and the other in blue and gold. An attractive piece of Victorian typography, laid out in a variety of decorative fonts and point sizes, with a strong hint of Gothic revival about it. Reads 'HANNAH WALLIS, | Plain & Ornamental Printer, | IN LETTER-PRESS, LITHOGRAPHY, & COPPERPLATE, | ACCOUNT-BOOK MAKER, | Stationer and Bookseller. | ARTISTS' MATERIALS OF THE BEST QUALITY.

Printed in red, black, blue, gold, orange and green on one side of a piece of paper, dimensions 20 x 12.5 cm. Good, on lightly-aged and spotted paper. Minor traces of stub on blank reverse. Attractive item, with twenty-six lines of rubricated text, surrounded by an ornated decorative border of foliage and birds in imitation of an illuminated manuscript. Headed 26, Queen's Row, Pimlico opposite the Royal Mews.', beneath which: 'Valentine Elkins Bookseller &c. of Baker St. Portman Sqe. Begs most respectfully to inform the Nobility & Gentry inhabitants of Belgrave Sqre.

On one side of a piece of wove paper roughly 23.5 x 19 cm. A delicate and scarce piece of ephemera, in a remarkably good state of repair. Possibly a proof, as a thin blank strip along one of the vertical edges, intended to be detached and discarded, still adheres. The menu itself is crisply printed in the centre, covering a space roughly 17 x 13.5 cm.

Paper dimensions 25.5 x 19 cm. Plate dimensions 22 x 16 cm. The head-and-shoulders portrait itself is oval, 7 cm high and 5.5 cm wide, contained in a square 11 x 9.5 cm, and with the caption beneath it. Printed on aged paper, with the image itself and the caption are clean and crisp, but the paper carries a crease to the margin, and there is light staining intruding into the surrounding square. Dibdin gives an account of Miller, whose son was the noted bookseller William Miller of Albemarle Street, in his 'Bibliomania' (1811 ed., pp.630-31).

Printed on one side of a piece of paper 13.5 x 16.5 cm. In good condition. Ruled in light blue, with letterhead in black: 'To James Thornton, New and Second-Hand Bookseller, Stationer, &c., 33, High Street, opposite University College Gateway. | Books bought or exchanged. | Binding in all its branches. | Interest Charged after Twelve Months' Credit. | The usual discount for cash.' Lists purchases made on four dates between November 1875 and January 1876, totalling £2 1s 10d, and marked as 'Subject to discount'. Beneath this, in purple ink is written 'Paid 17/3/76.

The label is printed on one side of a piece of paper roughly 15 x 9.5 cm. On heavily-worn, discoloured paper, with some loss of text. Six-line decorative heading: 'THIS BOOK | Belongs to | JOHNSTON'S | Circulating Library | English Stt. | CARLISLE.' The rest in copperplate. Firstly, five lines, including the request that 'BOOKS be not TRANSFERRED'. Followed by the 'Terms' (Yearly Supscription, Half-yearly, Quarterly and Monthly). This followed by seventeen lines. Includes the announcement that 'R. J. has always on hand a good assortment of Books departments of Literature'.

On one side of a piece of paper 21 x 14 cm. Mourning border. Very good, on lightly aged and spotted paper. Twenty-four lines of text announcing the 'death of our esteemed partner [...] for so many years [...] our fellow-labourer in the field of literary enterprise'. Cassell is described as 'a man of vigorous intellect and untiring energy, whose constant aim it was to render effectual assistance towards moral, social, and religious elevation of the people'.

12mo. 32 pages. Unbound. On browned high-acidity paper. Loss to margins of first and last leaves, but text clear and complete, save for the dating in bottom left-hand corner of the title: <...> 8. 81. Cancelling all previous Editions of this Catalogue.' Line in blue pen around the words 'for Children' in the title, and pencil markings (by a child) to p.30. Circular engraving beneath title captioned 'Goldsmith introduced to Newbery by Dr.