WATCHMAKER

Handbill, 36 x 15cm, poor condition with some amateur (sellotape) repairs on verso, chipping, closed tears, and some missing text. See part-image. Headed by image of watch paper ('I. CRANE / BROMSGROVE', showing a crane and a carriage lamp, within a circular border reading 'To make the Watch go faster turn the Regulator to the right & Slower the Contrary'. ). The text starts with verse in small print, followed by a pyramid of words, itself followed by three columns of verse advertising the goods available apart from watches and clocks (cricket bats, razors, you name it).

Seven pages. On four skins of vellum, each roughly eleven inches by nine wide. Attached with green ribbon, and with various stamps and two wax seals. Good: lightly aged and creased. The premises are at 77 and 79 North End, Croydon.

Vulliamy (1780-1854) was a London clockmaker. Allnutt (1773-1863) was a wealthy wine merchant, a patron of Constable and Turner with a noted collection of paintings. Reads 'B L Vulliamy | Jn Allnutt, Clapham | 28 Nov. 1843'. From a collection of material relating to the Artists' General Benevolent Fund.