COAL

[Thomas Burt, trade union leader and Radical Member of Parliament.] Autograph Letter Signed to A.G.L. Rogers, Secretary of the Liberal Publication Department, regarding a piece of parliamentary legislation on the question of mining.

Author: 
Thomas Burt (1837-1922), trade union leader and Radical Member of Parliament; General Secretary, Northumberland Miners' Association [A. G. L. Rogers, Secretary, Liberal Publication Department]
Publication details: 
2 June 1892. On House of Commons letterhead.
£45.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. Under Gladstone Burt served as Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade, 1892-1895. From the papers of Arthur George Liddon Rogers (1864-1944), son of the editor of the economist Thorold Rogers, and written while Rogers was Secretary of the Liberal Publication Department (a sort of public relations department), a position to which he was appointed in November 1891. 2pp, 12mo. On bifolium. Signed 'Thos Burt'. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded once for postage.

[Lord Bute, builder of Cardiff Docks: John Crichton-Stuart, 2nd Marquess of Bute.] Autograph Letter Signed to A[lexander]. Milne, regarding legal opinions he has received, and a ‘complete abstract of the title to all the family estates’.

Author: 
Lord Bute, builder of Cardiff Docks: John Crichton-Stuart (1793-1848), 2nd Marquess of Bute [Lord Mount Stuart, 1794-1814], aristocratic landowner and industrialist, developed the Welsh coal industry
Publication details: 
‘Luton Hoo 24 Novr 1830’.
£56.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 3pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn, with slight damage to the blank reverse of the second leaf from mount. Folded three times, with a short closed tear at the edge of one crease. The recipient is named by Bute as ‘A. Milne Esq’ (the Aberdeen merchant Alexander Milne of Crimonmogate?). The letter is signed ‘Bute’.

[Bedwellty Colliery Explosion, 1865: street ballad in Welsh, with list of names of deceased.] Printed item titled: 'Hanes alarus am 26 o golliers a gollasant eu bywydau yn pwll glo Bedwellty, gerllaw Tredegar, Dydd Gwener, Mehefin 16, 1865.'

Author: 
[Bedwellty Colliery Explosion, 1865; Welsh street ballad; coal mining]
Publication details: 
Printed by 'William Thomas, Argraffydd, Caerfyrddin.' No date [late Vicvtorian].
£65.00

The title is 'Hanes alarus am 26 o golliers a gollasant eu bywydau yn pwll glo Bedwellty, gerllaw Tredegar, Dydd Gwener, Mehefin 16, 1865.' This may be translated as 'The woeful tale of 26 colliers who lost their lives in the Bedwellty coal mine, near Tredegar, Friday, 16 June 1865. 4pp 16mo (15.5 x 9 cm). Paginated [1]-4. Bifolium. Printer's slug at foot of last page. Disbound. A frail survival: aged and worn.

Manuscript minute book of meetings of the directors of Huntley & Company, Lawrence Hill Railway Wharf, coal factors and builders merchants, with each entry signed by the chairman.

Author: 
H. A. Burnell, Secretary, Huntley & Company of Lawrence Hill Railway Wharf, coal factors and builders merchants, also 'Hauling & Furniture Removal', 'House Furnishing & Drapery' and 'Estate Agency'
Publication details: 
[Huntley & Company, Coal Factors and Merchants, Lawrence Hill Railway Wharf, Bristol.] Entries dating from 1 July 1904 to 7 October 1930.
£350.00

293pp., 4to. In brown leather half-binding, with black cloth boards and marbled endpapers. Three-page form relating to the firm's dealings with National Provincial Bank of England, filled-in and signed on behalf of the company by the secretary Henry A Burnell, dated July 1904. The minutes are in a number of different hands (beginning with Burnell's) and signed by a number of different chairmen.

[ Joe Corrie, Scottish miner and playwright. ] Corrected typescript of the 'English Version' of his play 'A Master of Men', with Typed Letter Signed to the theatre manager W. J. Macqueen-Pope.

Author: 
Joe Corrie [ Joseph Corrie ] (1894-1968), Scottish miner and playwright [ W. Macqueen-Pope [ Walter James Macqueen-Pope ] (1888-1960), theatre manager and theatre historian ]
Publication details: 
Hill's Hotel, 41 Princes Square, London W2. Undated. [ Performed at the Glasgow Citizens' Theatre, Scotland, circa 1944. ]
£600.00

For more about Corrie see his entry in the Oxford DNB, which states that 'His most effective mature work, A Master of Men, about the conflict between a mine manager, the mine owners, and the miners, was performed by the Glasgow Citizens' Theatre in 1944.' 111pp., 4to. On paper of various colours. Autograph title-page: 'English Version | A Master of Men | A Play | Joe Corrie | Hill's Hotel | 41 Princes Sq. | London W2 | Tel. Bay. 0118'. (Many of Corrie's plays were written in Lowland Scots.) In good condition, lightly-aged, in worn buff card wraps. With a few autograph emendations.

[Coal mining in early Victorian Wales.] Manuscript copy of agreement 'for the Coal Lease' between Mrs Williams of Pen y Van, Bedwellty, and Messrs. Powell and Williams, with Autograph Letter Signed from Robert Waters to Usk solicitor Henry Mostyn.

Author: 
[Bedwellty Pits coal mine, Wales; Tredegar Iron & Coal Co. Ltd.] Robert Waters of Newport [Henry Mostyn, solicitor, Usk, Monmouthshire; Sir Henry Prothheroe of Lantarnam Abbey; Welsh coal mining]
Publication details: 
Letter: Tredegar [Monmouthshire, Wales]. 12 July 1844. Copy agreement: 29 October 1841.
£80.00

Copy agreement: 2pp., 4to. Letter: 1p., 4to. The two on a single bifolium, with the agreement on both sides of the first leaf and the letter on the recto of the second. The reverse of the second leaf is addressed, with Penny Red stamp and Newport and Tredegar postmarks, to 'Henry Mostyn Esq | Solr | Usk'. In good condition, lightly aged and worn.

To You is the Word of Salvation sent. Seven Addresses to the Men and Women of England, delivered at St Martin's Hall, London, by Richard Weaver, a converted Collier and Ex-Pugilist. With a biographical sketch.

Author: 
Richard Weaver, a converted Collier and Ex-Pugilist [born at Asterley, near Shrewsbury, Shropshire, in 1827, died 1896]
Publication details: 
London: Benj. Lowe & Co., 31, Paternoster Row. [No date, but preface dated 'London, September, 1860.'.]
£180.00

128pp., 16mo. In good condition, on lightly-aged paper, in shiny yellow printed wraps with slight staining at head of front cover. The twelve-page 'Biographical Sketch' covers pp.3-16. It quotes the Rev. Baptist W. Noel as saying that Weaver 'has been preaching at Sheffield, and other towns, to multitudes of working men [...] he was, at one time, addicted to prize-fighting, and that he was never beaten in his life.

Manuscript minute book of meetings of the directors of Huntley & Company, Lawrence Hill Railway Wharf, coal factors and builders merchants, with each entry signed by the chairman.

Author: 
H. A. Burnell, Secretary, Huntley & Company of Lawrence Hill Railway Wharf, coal factors and builders merchants, also 'Hauling & Furniture Removal', 'House Furnishing & Drapery' and 'Estate Agency'
Publication details: 
[Huntley & Company, Coal Factors and Merchants, Lawrence Hill Railway Wharf, Bristol.] Entries dating from 1 July 1904 to 7 October 1930.
£650.00

293pp., 4to. In brown leather half-binding, with black cloth boards and marbled endpapers. Three-page form relating to the firm's dealings with National Provincial Bank of England, filled-in and signed on behalf of the company by the secretary Henry A Burnell, dated July 1904. The minutes are in a number of different hands (beginning with Burnell's) and signed by a number of different chairmen.

[Printed pamphlet.] Abstract of the Coal Mines Regulation Acts, 1887 to 1896; General Rles and Special Rules [...] Messrs. John Brown & Co.'s (Limited) Aldwarke Main Collieries, Swallowwood Seam, Rotherham. [With 'Bye-Laws'.]

Author: 
[Messrs. John Brown & Co.'s (Limited) Aldwarke Main Collieries, Swallowwood Seam, Rotherham; Committee for Yorkshire; coal mining; Victorian coal industry]
Publication details: 
No. 046. Jenkinson, Marshall & Co., Stationers, Printers, Paper & Twine Merchants, &c., Surrey Street and Tudor Street, Sheffield. Dated 9 August 1888, and amended in manuscript to 7 February 1902.
£165.00

The 'Abstract' and 'Bye-Laws' total 45pp., 12mo, attached in one unbound pamphlet. Complete, but aged and dusty: an item that certainly saw duty in its colliery. The 'Abstract' is 41pp., 12mo, paginated 1-40; with a single page headed 'Timbering in Mines. | Special Rules' on a leaf tipped in after p.38. The title-page is headed 'Published under the direction of the Committee for Yorkshire.', and the full title includes: '[...] General Rules and Special Rules to be observed by the Owners, Agents, Managers, Under-Managers, Under-Viewers, Enginewrights, Deputies, and Work-people of Messrs.

[Printed facsimile; Hymn] From Greenland's Icy Mountains [Twas when the Seas were roaring].

Author: 
Reginald Heber, sometime Bishop of Calcutta.
From Greenland's Icy Mountains
Publication details: 
Published & Sold by Hughes & Son, Wrexham, [1899].
£65.00
From Greenland's Icy Mountains

Four pages, 4to, bifolium, stains and small closed tears on fold marks, mainly good condition, comprising: Facsimile of Heber's words for the Hymn commencing "From Greenland's Icy Mountains" and concluding ([p.2]) "Redeemer, King, Creator, in bliss returns to reign" (Note at foot of p.[2] "The obliterations in the second and Fourth Verses are caused by the Printer's file"; p.[3] For the story of the writing of the hymn (see http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/f/r/fromgrim.htm); p.[4] Typed Letter Signed "Ellis Lever", "coal contractor", Brooklawn, Southport, April 8th, 1899, explaining to the ad

Two Autograph Letters, one "Anonymous" the other signed, to the Bovey Coal Pottery Company

Author: 
Joseph Cottle, bookseller and publisher (of "Lyrical Ballads", etc)
Publication details: 
Bristol and Fairfield House near Bristol, 1850 and 20 Dec. 1850.
£250.00

One page and two pages, both 8vo, bifolia, some staining but text clear and complete. In the first letter to which (as he explains in the second letter) he didn't add his name, he says that he visited "your Bovey Coal Pits" as a geologist (!), made observations and concluded that it was a "real Coal district, the current coal mined [an internet site informs me of poor quality] being of a "comparatively recent formation". Real coal was produced in an earlier period.

Printed consolidated statement, with manuscript additions, by the clerks of the City of London Coal Market, of the exact quantities of coal imported and delivered, headed 'No. 39. Coal Market, Wednesday, March 31, 1830'.

Author: 
J. Butcher, B. Wood, J. Pearsall, Clerks of the City of London Coal Market [Charles Skipper, Printer & Stationer, St. Dunstan's Hill, London]
Publication details: 
[Dated in manuscript 'April 25 1830'.] 'Charles Skipper, Printer & Stationer, St. Dunstan's Hill.'
£85.00

On one side of a piece of wove paper roughly 275 x 230 mm. Printed and manuscript text clear and entirely legible on worn, creased and grubby paper with one small strip of paper repairing reverse. Crest of City of London at head. Two sets of four columns, side by side. The four columns are: 'Ships at Market', 'QUALITY', 'Ships sold' and 'PRICE'. The whole of the 'QUALITY' column in the first set is headed 'NEWCASTLE', containing 45 entries from 'Adair's' to 'Walls End Walker'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('H Fagel') to unnamed male correspondent.

Author: 
Baron Hendrik Fagel [Henry Fagel] (1765-1838), Dutch Ambassador to London [Holland; the Netherlands]
Publication details: 
Whitehallplace Febry. 16th. 1824'.
£75.00

4to, 2 pp. Text clear and entire. On aged paper with a few closed tears to extremities and a thin strip of discoloration along one margin on reverse. 'The Royal Netherland Navy have made use of Coaltar for preserving certain parts of vessels of war from decay', but 'the Medical Department in the Netherlands' have confirmed that the use of Coaltar for that purpose has a prejudicial effect on the health of the Ships crews'. Asks to be informed 'of the results of any enquiries instituted on this Subject by order of the British Admiralty'. Docketed 'Netherland's under Secretary'.

Four Autograph Letters Signed and one Typed Letter Signed to G[eorge]. K[enneth]. Menzies, Secretary, Royal Society of Arts.

Author: 
William Arthur Bone [THE COAL INDUSTRY]
Publication details: 
31 Oct. 1913 and 6 Feb., 2 March, and 5 and 12 Oct. 1919.; the first three on Imperial College of Science and Technology letterhead, the fourth from St Albans and the fifth from Stockton on Tees.
£80.00

English scientist (1871-1938), Professor of Chemical Technology at the Imperial College of Science and Technology. All items quarto and very good, though lightly grubby, creased and stained in places. All five docketed and bearing the Society's stamp. LETTER ONE (one page): He will be happy to give 'a course of Cantor lectures [...] on the subject of "Surface Construction" provided that you will put in the requisite gas & air services at your cost for the practical Demonstration'.

Signed Letter in secretarial hand to Francis B[roxholme]. G[rey]. Jenkinson[, House of Commons Clerk].

Author: 
Sir Charles Wentworth Dilke [CHILD LABOUR; COAL MINING]
Publication details: 
19 April 1900; on letterhead '76, Sloane Street, S.W.'
£80.00

Second baronet (1843-1911), politician and author. Three pages, 12mo. In good condition although grubby and with a few stains. 'My Coal Mines Prevention of Child Labour Underground Bill grew out of the Eight Hours debate and a challenge to the Coal Owners, so I did not put metalliferous mines in, and excluded them by any title. There are very few boys under 13 in them, but the principle might be the same'. He has been consulted on the matter by the Home Office, and has spoken to Lord Grey about it.

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