FISCAL

3pp., folio. Bifolium. On aged and worn paper. Docketed on reverse of second leaf and addressed to 'Mr. Robert Park | Writer in | Glasgow', with postmark in red ink. The first page is headed 'Edinburgh within John's Coffee House the fifteenth day of December One thousand Seven hundred and Eighty six Years. | Siderunt of the committee respecting the Attorney Tax Law.' The minutes end at the top half of the third page, and a followed on the lower part of the same page by Sprott's covering note, written by a secretary and signed by him with short autograph postscript.

2pp., 12mo. Bifolium. Good, on lightly-aged paper. In a difficult hand, with the recipient's name indecipherable. He will not be able to insert the portrait of Sir William Pepperrell in his book (the second volume of his 'Lives of American Merchants'), as the 'publishers [Derby & Jackson, New York] are unwilling to pay for more than expense of printing and paper', and he has 'been at a good deal of expense already on that score'. The volume was published in 1858. The portrait, 'Eng[rave]d. by Wm. N.

8vo volume, on thick laid paper, in black simulated leather binding (a Black Book of Bankers, so to speak), marbled endpapers. Gilt stamp of the Bank of England on the front cover. In very good condition. The recto of the first leaf is inscribed 'To Gordon Richardson | In admiration and With every good wish On your 90th birthday | From your Friends and Colleagues of the Bank and the City and from abroad | 25th November 2005'. Around 70 signatures follow, over seven pages.