Autograph Letter Signed to the autograph collector Thomas Thompson of Church Street, Liverpool.

Two pages, quarto. Very good. With traces of blue paper mount adhering to addressed verso of second leaf of bifolium. Dawson Turner having declined to buy a collection on the grounds that it is 'wholly out of his line of collecting', Russell now offers it to Thompson. They are 'not so interesting' as he anticipated when he 'bought them at an auction without looking at them till they were on the table'. Gives details of the purchase and describes the volumes, estimating their cost in binding. '[N]ow, to use a vulgar expression if you will buy "a pig in a poke" as well as myself I shall be happy to send them to you at £6.6.0'. Adds threateningly 'If you do not acquiesce in my proposition I will still send them for your approbation at £8.8.0'. Encloses Turner's letter (not present) for Thompson's collection. Signs himself 'John Russell Smith, Compiler of the "Bibliotheca Cantiana" a Bibliographical Account of Kentish Topography, "Bibliographical Essay on the Provincial Dialects of England." &c.'