TRADE

2pp., 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Written in a shaky hand. The letter begins: 'Dear Sir | I was much obliged to you for the extra copy of The Inquirer which I was glad to have, containing very good letters supporting Free Trade. It is a subject on which I feel strongly – perhaps inherited from my father!

1p., 12mo. In fair condition, with central spike-hole and a few burn marks at foot. Reads: 'Lord Harris has just recd the Illustrations to Deserted Village, but retyrns Retsch's Othello by this night's Coach, having received a copy of it about a week since.'

1p., on 12 x 11.5 cm piece of paper, possibly cut from the conclusion of a letter. In fair condition, lightly aged, with traces of glue from mount on reverse and slight loss to two words of text from wear. Apparently written to a family member or intimate (but see note below), the note reads: 'The enclosed is the list of the books that will reach you tomorrow morning by Messrs.

The 'Ex-Officers' Book Union' (the apostrophe was omitted in later years) was an obscure business. The firm was certainly active between 1919 and 1936, mostly from 16 Rathgar Avenue, West Ealing. In the early 1930s its address was given as '87 Bishop's Mansions, S.W.6', which was also Redway's residence. It seems likely that the business was a joint-venture between Redway and at least one other former army officer. The present item is 40pp., small 4to. Stapled in brown printed wraps. In fair condition, lightly aged, on worn and creased wraps.

Half-penny postcard printed in purple. In fair condition, lightly aged, with thin strip along one edge from former mounting obscuring parts of a few words. Addressed to 'F. Davis Esq. | 4 Upper Phillamore [sic] Place | W.' The communication reads: 'Sir, | I beg to inform you that we have bought out Maltons Gt. Treatise on Perpective in the columns of the Forge & Lathe a fortnightly Journal devoted to Practical Mechanics &c. The Preface appeared in our No. Published yesterday price 6d by post 7d Terms for Subscribers 16/- Yearly 8/- ½ Yearly 4/- Quarterly. | A. Absolon | Publisher'.

1p., foolscap 8vo. In fair condition, aged and lightly creased, with some wear to extremities. Healy begins by thanking Duff for his letter, and 'for your generosity in sending me copies of the two letters of Daniel Defoe'. He explains that he has 'searched for their whereabouts for about ten years', and had finally become convinced 'that unless they were in your family they were lost'.

12pp., 8vo. Stapled into light-brown printed wraps, with title in dark-brown on white label on front wrap. In good condition, lightly aged and worn. Blackwell's address is on pp.3-10; p.11 carries a 'List of Members 30th June 1937', in two columns, including R. Cobden-Sanderson, Geoffrey Faber, Rupert Hart-Davis, Harold Macmillan, Stanley Unwin and Sir Hugh Walpole. The final page carries details of the Society's officers, committee, secretary and offices. Blackwell begins his address: 'I have nothing new or strange to propose to-night.

Totalling 17pp., foolscap 8vo. The main paper, 'The Organisation and Functions of British Chambers of Commerce', 14pp; the supplementary paper (separately paginated), titled 'Joint Chambers of Commerce', 3pp. Separating the two papers is a leaf carrying a faded duplicated image of a plan copied from The Chambers of Commerce Manual 1954-5'. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn, with rusty staple and paperclip, and slight creasing to the last three leaves of the main paper. Minor pencil emendations throughout the main paper by Carpenter.

The work was hugely popular, going through numerous editions between 1894 and 1907. The title is (deliberately) misleading. The work is an exploration of theological rather than biological questions, with the author stating that 'The How, Why, and Wherefore have not received the full amount of profound and reverent study that the ineffably intrinsic importance of the subject to ourselves warrants.' Lewis Carroll had a copy in his library.

1p., landscape 12mo. Aged and worn. Traces of red wax from the seal on the reverse, which is docketed. Reads: 'Sir/ as you do not import the Teneriffe Wine yourself; I had rather not have any. - I will thank you to inform Mr Southern when the Post leaves Town - Send it by Barton's Shrewsbury Waggon. | I remain, | yr. Obdt. Sert. | Berwick'. Contemporary biographical annotation in light pencil at head.

The work for which these proofs were prepared, Burke's 'Genealogical History of the Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited, and Extinct Peerages of the British Empire', was published in London by Harrison in 1866, and was a revision of his father John Burke's 'General and Heraldic Dictionary of the Peerages [...] extinct, dormant, and in abeyance', first published in 1831, with a third edition in 1846. The present collection is largely in fair condition, on aged and worn paper, but with some of the items damaged.

1p., 12mo. Bifolium. In fair condition, aged and worn. Frank on reverse of damaged second leaf to 'Mess Nichols & Son | Parliament Street | Printers | W Curtis'. Seventeen lines of directions to ' his friends Mess Nichols & Son', regarding the binding of legislative works, beginning with 'two Statute books of Geo the Fourth'. Regarding 'an odd, abridgment of some of Geo 3d' he writes: 'it is probable there may be more, if so begs Mess N & Son would get them & bind them, if not it will hardly be worth the expense of binding the one'.

Carpenter, who was knighted in 1951, 'For services as President, Manchester Chamber of Commerce', was a leading Manchester industrialist and banker. Among the numerous positions listed in his entry in Who Was Who, he was for 40 years the chairman and managing director of the Manchester cotton manufacturers Greg Brothers & Co., and for 21 years a director of Williams Deacon's Bank (serving as chairman for 12 years), a leading member of the Cotton and Rayon Merchants' Association, the Association of British Chambers of Commerce, and the International Chamber of Commerce.

12 pp., 8vo. Modern marbled bds. In good condition, lightly aged and worn. This interesting item is of significance to Ruskin scholars, containing a whole page describing 24 drawings and engravings by him, as well as a number of interesting books from the library of a close associate. The item was previously bound by Rossetti in a volume with two, unrelated, others. It then passed into the collection of the art historian Rose Sketchley, whose sister C. J. Sketchley presented it to Fulham Public Libraries in 1949. It is scarce: no copy has been traced on either OCLC WorldCat or COPAC.

1p., 12mo. In fair condition, lightly aged, Laid down on part of a leaf removed from an album. Reads: 'My Dear Sir | My absence from home must plead my excuse in not sooner replying to your obliging note of the 22nd Ulto - | I have desired 30 more Copies to be forwarded to you as you request, & I am sure you will be glad to hear that thro' your kindness, & that of many others who have interested themselves, we are likely to realize a sum commensurate to the Scholars moderate establishment'.

1p., 12mo. In fair condition, lightly aged. Begins: 'Mem. for Mr Henry Gray | I have received your Catalogue dated April 25th. | Will you send me, if still in hand, […]'. A list of five works follows, the last four French, including Sarah Scott's Utopian "Millenium Hall", following which Besant writes: 'for wh. I will remit by return post – on receipt.'

3pp., 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition, on lightly-aged paper. The letter begins: 'Mr. [ Park? ], the Artist, of Dublin, has this day written me word that he has some intention of coming to settle in London in the ensuing winter.' He urges Spencer to 'get him to deliver a course of Lectures on Painting at the Surrey Institution. From speeches which I have heard him deliver, I should think his language & delivery well calculated for the purpose & likely to render him popular.' He explains that he is prevented from writing himself by a 'complaint in my eyes'.

See William Johnstone's obituary in the Illustrated Tasmanian News, May 1874. He was born in England and left Somerset for Van Diemen's Land in 1841. He set up in business the following year in Launceston, which had been founded in 1806, and is said to be the third oldest colonial settlement in Australia, after Sydney and Hobart..As the years proceeded he prospered spectacularly, and by the time of his death he was so highly esteemed, that 'many places of business had the front windows partially closed while the shipping in port and the Town Hall had the Union Jack hoisted at half mast'.

1p., 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. He is obliged for Brown's letter, 'pointing out misprints in my father's works. | Such communications are always valuable.' He is happy to say that 'young Bliss is working very well, & we shall make a good business man of him'.

1p., 8vo. In fair condition, on aged paper with small spike hole at head. He thanks the unnamed recipient for his 'obliging letter' and 'ingenious Catalogue', and 'would have acknowledged the receipt sooner' had he not been waiting for 'an opportunity of conveying the same free of expence'. The recipient is 'welcome' to the copy of 'Stewarts Athens' at his 'own price' of two guineas. Burnham has 'adjusted Mr. Hayes's Account with the balance of onepound [sic] ffifteenshillings [sic]', and begs 'to thank that Gentleman for the same'.

2pp., 12mo. Bifolium with mourning border. In good condition, lightly aged and worn, with the blank second leaf tipped-in onto a leaf from an album. His only excuse for 'the long delay' is 'that all my time has been occupied in taking stock, which necessarily has been a most irksome job'. It will be the following month before he can 'put forth an appendix to my Catalogue, as it will be necessary for me to wait the coming event of something, that I may, or may not be engaged in.' He will have time 'to consider & reconsider' Huggins's 'advertisement'.

1p., 12mo. On grey paper. In fair condition, lightly aged. He writes to enquire whether the recipient 'can undertake the publication of the novel I submitted to you – In the World of Mimes – as I am leaving town at the end of the week', and he hopes to 'settle the matter one way or the other (preferably one way & not the other)' before he leaves. 'In the World of Mimes' was published in London by Greening & Co. in 1902.

Four pages including address panel, 4to, bifolium, edges dulled, a little foxing. He outlines what he has done (sending things?), in a one page letter, and, on the other two pages, given a detailed account of what he has done for the bookseller from December 1787 to May 1788, including "brochures" (pamphlets). The recipient has noted when he replied. See images on my website.

Subtitle: 'With an Appendix containing some interesting letters, and other authentic documents, illustrative of the memoir.' 130pp., 12mo. Frontispiece. Bound in at the end is a twelve-page catalogue, dated 1 October 1816, and with drophead title: 'Valuable Periodical Works, Published by Sherwood, Neely, and Jones, Paternoster Row, London. Beneath the drophead title is a woodcut of a lion. Only one copy of the trade catalogue traced on OCLC WorldCat.

1p., 12mo. In fair condition, lightly aged with minor burn mark to fore-edge. Reads: 'Dear Mr E Whittingham, | I fear I cannot be in St as usual tomorrow - I will endeavour to run down in the course of the day -'. The newspaper cutting of an obituary of 'The Late Mr. Charles Gilpin' is unattributed and undated. The portrait, apparently cut from the same newspaper, is 14 x 13 cm., and depicts the head and shoulders of 'The Late Mr. Charles Gilpin, M.P.', looking rather dazed.

2pp., 4to. In fair condition, on aged and worn paper with spike hole. The recipient is unidentified. He asks him to 'forward the few books which Mr. Clark & I laid out when we had the pleasure of calling on you in London, with my Account including Mr. Clarkes, when I will remit you the balance -'. He asks him to send 'to Mr. Lunn's in Oxford St. for a Copy of D<?>'s Lexicon which I bot. there, & paid for, & which you'l [sic] please to include with the rest of your parcels'. The letter ends: 'I have concluded for the present to keep my own Copy of the Edns;,

4pp., 12mo. In fair condition, lightly aged, with closed tears along the fold between the two leaves of the bifolium. Trench's publishers were 'John W. Parker & Son, West Strand'. The letter begins: 'I heartily wish that I could go to the press at once with the 3rd. Edition of the Parables. [ 'Notes on the Parables of Our Lord', first published in 1841 ] I have been however working hard at them & they are nearly ready.

2pp., 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged. He begins by informing him that the accounts 'for sale of your works for the past year are being made out'., and that he hopes to send them in a few days: 'they have been delayed only until I could receive from the various newspapers the acc[oun]ts of advertising'. He continues, regarding a portrait of Hallam by Thomas Phillips: 'I have this day seen Phillips Copy of your Portrait - very nearly finished - &, as it seems to me, executed with care & accuracy'.

The subject of this letter is Huntingford's 'Pindari Carmina', 'excudit R. Watts sumptibus T. Cadell et W. Davies', published in London in 1814. Watts had been made Printer to the University of Cambridge in 1802, resigning in 1809 because, as Stokes notes in his 'Cambridge Stationers, Printers, Bookbiinders, &c' (1919), 'the Press did not prosper under his rule, although, when he left Cambridge, he did good work as a printer of Oriental volumes'. Between around 1812 and 1815 he was working in Broxbourne. In 1816 he moved to London, where he established the Oriental Type-Foundry, Temple Bar.

3pp., 4to. Bifolium In good condition, lightly aged. Laid down on the blank reverse of the second leaf is a frank (also signed 'Suffield'), addressed to 'Jn. Richardson Esqr. | Heydon | Aylsham | Norfolk' An excellent letter, containing a splendid assessment of Brougham's qualities, and a vivid reminiscence regarding his predecessor as Lord Chancellor, Lord Eldon. The identity of the book that is the subject of the letter is unclear. Suffield begins by reporting that Brougham has promised Suffield that he will 'attentively consider' Richardson's book.