Volume of manuscript accounts of a Ladies' Department Store, listing substantial sums under Lace, Dresses, Wrappers, Silks, Gloves, Furs, Umbrellas, Haberdashery, Trimmings, Jackets, Millinery, Underclothing, Costumes.

353pp., small 4to. In brown calf half-binding, with marbled endpapers, and title 'DISSECTING BOOK' in gilt on red leather label on spine. In very good condition, clean and tight, in lightly-worn binding. Neatly written out throughout in the same hand, with pencil running totals added in a second hand. Yearly figures, each beginning on the first of March, done in double-entry, on facing pages, for each of the departments (Lace, Dresses, Wrappers, Silks, Gloves, Furs, Umbrellas, Haberdashery, Trimmings, Jackets, Millinery, Underclothing, Costumes), with the first double-page spread, for 'Lace', beginning on 1 March 1897, with the left-hand page giving 'Stock in hand' (£1258 2s 10d, with a balance of £503 11s 8d), and the right-hand page giving 'Sales' (£1033 18s 0d, with £272 10s 0d in 'Transfers' and £454 6s 6d 'Stock in hand'). The largest turnover in 1897 was in the Costumes department (£4647 4s 1d), followed by 'U'clothing' (£2786 18s 11d) and Jackets (£2316 14s 4d). As the years proceed, and despite some ups and downs, business appears to improve, with the Clothing turnover in 1908 being £10,102 2s 7d. The entries for the year 1909 are incomplete, suggesting that the accounts were transferred to another volume.