TOBACCONIST

A nice collection of material, including five letters in which an American actor writes to a London friend while on a visit to England. The recipient of McDonough's letters is John Jabez Stocken (d.1892), head of a leading City of London firm of tobacconists, and an antiquary. (His son Frank Lacy Stocken (1867-1937) was later an actor under the name 'Frank Lacy'.) From the correspondence it is clear that McDonough stayed with Stocken during his stay in England.

4pp, 16mo (15.5 x 9 cm). Paginated [1]-4. Bifolium. Disbound. A frail survival, aged and worn. The first leaf (pp.1-2) carries the poem 'Cerdd y Tobacco' ('The Tobacco Poem'), in five eight-line stanzas, with the title followed by a half-page stock woodcut (evidently from a tobacconist's advertisement) of an oriental figure seated on crates on the dockside, with sailing ship in the background. At the foot is engraved: 'FINE TEAS AND TOBACCO'. The second leaf (pp.3-4) carries the poem 'Can y Bachgen Main' ('Song of the Slender Boy'), in six eight-line stanzas.

On one side of a piece of landscape 8vo grey wove paper. Clear and complete. Discoloured and worn, with spike hole at centre. Printed part of receipt reads 'London, ..........18..... | 49, Friday Strt. Cheapside. | M............ | Bought of Joseph Webb, | Importer of Cigars.' The bill is for '2lbs. Bengal Cheroots - 9/- | 18/-', with the receipt reading '1852 | Aug 4th. paid [signed] Jo: Webb'. Docketed on reverse 'Webb | 18/'. Webb does not appear to have traded from the site for very long, and little is to be discovered about him.