[P. S. King, London Parliamentary Bookseller.] 36 items from his papers, including correspondence from individuals including the Bishop of Chichester, Sir Charles Bowyer Adderley, Sir Edward Cholmley Dering, William Knight and other public figures.

The notable London firm of P. S. King & Son, 'Publishers, Parliamentary and General Booksellers, Bookbinders and Printers', was in existence for more than a hundred years, having been established, according to its own account, in Parliament Street in 1819, and still active until 1941, when it became P. S. King and Staples, under which name it traded for around six years. (An advertisement for the Staples Press Limited in The Times, 14 February 1946, lists, among incorporated companies: 'P. S. King and Staples Limited | Publishers, Parliamentary and General Booksellers | Publishers to the L[ondon]. C[ounty]. C[ouncil]. and I[interational]. L[abour]. O[rganisation]. | Printing and Bookbinding | Westminster. Founded 1819.') The present collection, mainly consisting of correspondence addressed to the founder Philip Stephen King himself, is in fair condition, aged and with occasional damp staining (affecting in particular half a dozen items). Among the 36 items in the collection are signed autograph letters and notes (almost all in 12mo) from 26 individuals, among them: Sir Charles Bowyer Adderley: on letterhead of Hams Hall, Minworth, Birmingham, no date; 'H. B.': on letterhead of the House of Commons Library, 7 January 1881; Edward Baines: 32 St Mary's Road, Canonbury, 25 January 1860; John Aloysius Blake, MP for Waterford: Waterford, 14 October 1859 (listing addresses and making an addition for an entry in a biographical publication); Thomas F. Brady: on letterhead of the Office of Irish Fisheries, 12 April 1873; Sir Edward Cholmley Dering: Pluckley, 5 September [no year] ('I have left orders for my journals and Parliamentary papers to be packed and sent to you: Try and sell the former, and if not I suppose you must take them as waste at 25/ per cwt, but as they are complete, I shall hope you will be able to dispose of them to advantage'); T. de Cavalier de Cuverville, 'Capitaine de Vaisseau, Commandant le Trident': calling card, with autograph note in French addressed from Brest, 29 December 1880; Charles Louis Léon Dufresne de la Chauvinière, French Naval Attache: postcard in English from 12 Wilton Place, postmarked 27 January 1881; Ashurst Turner Gilbert ('A. T. Circestr'), Bishop of Chichester: Palace, Chichester, 4 February 1856; H. S. Hallett of the Society of Arts, 102 Park Street, Grosvenor Square, 20 January 1887 ('I have been asked to treat the same subject as the Address you have printed for the Society of Arts so I hardly know whether it is worth while to keep any of the "Addresses" After it is delivered the resolutions passed and perhaps a few press notices might be added, so I should be obliged if you will not at present break up the type as we might require further copies. Of course I have not the slightest objection to your printing for you own use or sale any copies you might wish for.'); Agnes R. Hawksley: two from Lingholt, Grayshott, Haslemere (one on letterhead), 10 and 13 April 1904 (from the former: 'Thank you so much for the autograph of the Duke of Wellington [...] I also send a letter I have of Conan Doyle's with pleasure'); Healy: on letterhead of the House of Commons Library; Bolton King: on letterhead of Gaydon, Warwick, 9 October 1902; William Knight (Professor of Moral Philosophy in the University of St Andrews): on letterhead of the Castle House, St Andrew, Scotland, 20 October 1902 ('If you have two by Dr. Chalmers, I would ask the favour (not for myself but for the University of St Andrews) to have one of them framed under his portrait in the classroom where he lectured; and, in exchange for it, you might have a letter of some eminent man'); J. A. Langford: on letterhead of Birmingham Morning News, 27 June 1872; T. Latimer: on letterhead of 143 Fore Street, Exeter, 3 June 1886 ('You by your pen are doing the best for England - as a good King might be expected to do. I hope that we shall soon be out of this element of bitterness. It is shocking to hear liberals abusing John Bright for not being true to G.O.M.'); Sir Wilfred Lawson (damp-damaged): 1 Grosvenor Crescent, 6 April 1896; : 12 The College, Doctors Commons, 8 December 1855; Gerald Loder: on letterhead of 23 Brunswick Terrace, Brighton; James Lowther: his signature across stamp, as part of receipt by him dated 8 May 1875, on Autograph Note by King on his letterhead ('P. S. King, from Parliament St., Depot for sale of Parliamentary Papers and Acts of Parliament'), Canadian Government Building, King Street, Westminster, 7 May 1875; E. G. McKenzie: on Admiralty letterhead, 31 December 1880; T. T. Beaty-Pownall (on Lord Knollys's behalf): on Buckingham Palace letterhead, 31 July 1907 (damp damaged); R. Addison Smith: on letterhead of the Scottish Conservative Club, Edinburgh (4pp., 12mo, beginning by discussing 'the so called faggots in todays "Scotsman"'). Also 3 Typed Letters Signed from Lord Knollys (on letterheads of Windsor Castle, Sandringham and H.M. Yacht Victoria and Albert), 1904 and 1907, acknowledging presentations of material to King George V (all three damp-damaged). Among the other items is the King's own extraction of the printed 'Autograph and MSS. Section, Including the Collection of First Numbers of Newspapers and Magazines, etc., of Mr. P. S. King', from the printed catalogue of the Crystal Palace Exhibition (pp.128-249), marked up in manuscript, and with the pink printed wraps of the catalogue. Heavily damp damaged, and with an manuscript letter (also damaged), signed by Henry Gillman, General Manager of the Crystal Palace Company, on letterhead, 13 November 1897, informing King of the return of his manuscripts to Brighton. On the reverse of Gillman's letter King has transcribed a report of the exhibition of his collection, from the Journal of the Society of Archivists and Autograph Collectors, August 1897.