WORKING

[English Social History: A working-class London cinema-goer.] Two exercise books, filled with 385 manuscript entries by ‘Miss Renee Fish’ of Catford, detailing ‘Films I have seen’, between 1930 and 1934, and 1939 and 1943, at various London cinemas.

Author: 
[English Social History: A working-class London cinema-goer in the 1930s and 1940s; the movies; the pictures; the flicks]
Publication details: 
‘Miss Renee Fish, / 112, Allerford Road / Catford, / S.E.6. [London]’ First exercise book: 272 entries between 3 January 1930 and 27 October 1934. Second exercise book: 113 entries between 12 June 1939 and 20 March 1943.
£450.00

An interesting agglomeration of ephemera London cinematic information. The author is working-class or lower-middle-class. Two sturdy ruled small 4to exercise books, with black covers of ribbed watered cloth and spine of red cloth. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn. ONE: 150pp. Ownership inscription on inside of front cover: ‘Miss Renee Fish, / 112, Allerford Road / Catford, / S.E.6.’ The first page is headed: ‘31. 12. 29. Films I have seen during 1930.’ Each of the volume’ The entries are numbered from 1 to 272, with an additional numeration for each year from the second year onwards.

[‘I was aiding the poor in speaking so frankly to the rich’: Anthony Wilson Thorold, successively Bishop of Rochester and Winchester.] Long Autograph Letter Signed criticising the middle and upper classes for excluding the poor from churches.

Author: 
A. W. Thorold [Anthony Wilson Thorold] (1825-1895), successively Bishop of Rochester and Winchester, who recruited Isabella Gilmore to revive the female diaconate in the Anglican Communion
Publication details: 
6 January 1863; 16 Bedford Square [London]. On his embossed armorial letterhead.
£56.00

An interesting and empassioned letter, highlighting one aspect of the debate over the class inequalities present in mid-Victorian England. See Thorold’s entry in the Oxford DNB. 8pp, 12mo. On two bifoliums. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded twice. Signed ‘A. W. Thorold’. The recipient is not named. He begins by stating that his speech at Islington lasted twenty-five minutes, as opposed to the report in the journal he has sent him, which ‘could be easily spoken in two’, and does not give a ‘fair notion of its point and aim’.

[ Thomas Burt; working class MP ] Autograph Letter Signed Thos Burt to Watson [presumably his biographer, Aaron Watson], about a social event he can't attend, and his health.

Author: 
Thomas Burt [ (1837–1922), trade unionist and one of the first working-class Members of Parliament.]
Publication details: 
[Printed heading] Northumberland Miners' Mutual Confident Association, with lines through and address changed in Burt's hand to 20 Burton Terrace (Newcastle), 17 Nov. 1906.
£56.00

Four pages, 8vo, bifolium, good condition. I rejoice that the N.L. Club is about to give you a complimentary Luncheon. The Committee asked me to propose, so to speak the Toast of the Guests. Most reluctantly I had to decline, mainly owing to the state of my health, but partly too because I am uncertain whether I can be in London in time for the function. | I trust, and feel sure, that there will be a great and appreciative gathering worthy of the guests and of the occasion. | It seems almost an age since I saw you and I have often chided myself for not calling upon you.

[ Anthony Ashley Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury, Liberal politician and social reformer. ] Autograph Letter in the third person, as 'Lord Ashley', thanking the editor of The Globe [ John Wilson ] for his support [ to the Mines Act ].

Author: 
Anthony Ashley Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury [ Lord Ashley, 1811-1861 ] (1801-1885), Liberal politician and social reformer [ John Wilson, editor of the Globe newspaper, London, and Benthamite ]
Publication details: 
Place not stated. 9 June 1842.
£120.00

2pp., 4to. In good condition, lightly aged. The subject of the letter is the Mines Act, passed 10 August 1842, which barred women and girls and boys under ten from working down the mines. The letter, which is headed 'private & confidential', reads: 'Lord Ashley cannot refrain from thanking the Editor of the Globe for the friendly & able support to the measure now before Parliament, which he gave in his Paper of last Evening.

[ Richard Oastler, factory reformer. ] Autograph Letter Signed to his daughter Maria, wishing her a happy new year from the Fleet Prison, and describing the meal he has eaten there.

Author: 
Richard Oastler (1789-1861), abolitionist, factory reformer ('The Factory King') and Tory radical
Publication details: 
'The Queen's Prison [i.e. the Fleet Prison ] | Jany. 1. 1843.'
£150.00

1p., 4to. In fair condition, on aged and worn paper, with slight damage to corners caused by removal from album. For the context of the letter, see Oastler's entry in the Oxford DNB, which explains that he was nearing the end of a three and a half year sentence at the Fleet Prison, for 'debts accumulated during his stewardship at Fixby', the charge being a 'Pretext', his 'campaign against the new poor law' having proved 'incendiary'. The letter begins: 'Maria! | This comes from thy own Papa, to wish thee a Happy new Year.

[ Pamphlet. ] Why Men Strike or, Strikes and how to get rid of them. A Lecture by Dr. Edward McGlynn.

Author: 
Dr. Edward McGlynn [ The Anti-Poverty Society, New York ]
Publication details: 
London: William Reeves, 185, Fleet Street, E.C. [ Circa 1889. ]
£80.00

14 + [2] pp., 12mo. Disbound without covers. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn. 'Delivered under the auspices of the Anti-Poverty Society at the Cooper Institute, New York, on Sunday, March 3, 1889, for the benefit of the Street-Car Drivers and Conductors out of employment through the late strike.' Scarce: the only copy on COPAC in Oxford.

[ Pamphlet. ] The Facts about the Unemployed. An Appeal and a Warning. By One of the Middle Class.

Author: 
'One of the Middle Class' [ 'H. H. C.' ]
Publication details: 
London: The Modern Press, 13, Paternoster Row, E.C. and W. L. Rosenberg, 261, East Tenth Street, New York City. 1886.
£65.00

16pp., 12mo. Disbound without covers. In fair condition, on lightly-aged paper. Signed in type at the end 'H. H. C.' At foot of reverse of title: 'The Writer will be glad to hear from anyone who agrees with his conclusions.' Scarce.

[ Poor Rates in Devon, 1819. ] Handbill 'Poor Rates' notice by H. Roberts, Governor, Hospital of Poor's Portion, Plymouth, regarding the examination of 'the Receipts of the Collectors'.

Author: 
H. Roberts, Governor, Hospital of Poor's Portion, Plymouth [ Poor Rates in Devon ]
Publication details: 
'Hospital of Poor's Portion, 23rd August, 1819.' [ 'WILLIAMS, PRINTER AND BOOKSELLER, OLD-TOWN, PLYMOUTH.' ]
£45.00

Printed on one side of a 31.5 x 19.5 cm piece of Britannia laid paper. A fragile piece of ephemera, aged and with heavy wear to extremities. The text is complete, except for loss to the first letter ('P') of the first word ('Poor') on the top line. Text reads: 'Poor Rates. | THE GUARDIANS who were appointed a Committee to examine the Receipts of the Collectors, having compared a great number of Receipts with the Original Rate Book, have the satisfaction to inform the Inhabitants that they are fully satisfied with Messrs.

[Welsh Working Men's Club and Institute.] Manuscript 'General Income and Expenditure Book' containing itemised and audited accounts of the Working Men's Club and Institute, Cefn, Kenfig Hill, Bridgend, and the Talbot Miners' Welfare Institute.

Author: 
[Working Men's Club and Institute, Kenfig HILL, Bridgend, South Wales, 1911-1938] [Talbot Miners' Welfare Institute.]
Publication details: 
[Kenfig Hill, Bridgend, South Wales.] 1 February 1911 to 18 January 1938.
£850.00

The present volume provides a fascinating sidelight into the operations of an archetypal Working Men's Club (Labour leader Ed Milliband was recently described as being 'more at home in Primrose Hill than Kenfig Hill') at what was perhaps the high point of such an institution, covering the period from just before the Great War to the end of the Depression of the 1930s. The accounts relate to two locations: the Cefn Institute and the Talbot Miners' Welfare Institute. The latter was founded in 1911 after a gift from the Talbot family, and closed in 1959.

[J. Rhodes & Sons, Ltd., manufacturers of sheet metal working machinery.] Trade catalogue, profusely illustrated with photographs and diagrams, and detailed descriptive text.

Author: 
J. Rhodes & Sons, Ltd. Grove Iron Works, Wakefield, manufacturers of sheet metal working machinery, founded 1824 [Edwardian trade catalogue]
Publication details: 
J. Rhodes & Sons, Ltd., Grove Iron Works, Wakefield. London Office, 37, Walbrook, E.C. [J. H. Davenport & Co., Columbian Printing Works, Leeds, Yorks.] [1901.]
£80.00

409 + [6]pp., 8vo. In blue cloth, with ornate design printed in silver on front cover, around a laid down photographic portrait of 'The late Alderman J. Rhodes, J.P. Founder of the Firm in 1824.' Spine reads: '1824. J. RHODES & SONS, LTD., 1901.' Text embossed on back cover. In fair condition, on aged paper, in lightly-worn and aged binding. Two leaves of addenda tipped-in, the first, with text printed in red, headed 'Notice. - American Competition!'; the second carrying text and illustration of the '"Rhodes" "Excelsior" Treadle Guillotine Shear'.

[University of London Tutorial Classes for Working People.] Two printed items, including 'Report of the University of London Joint Committee for the Promotion of the Higher Education of Working People on the Work of the Four Years 1909-1913'.

Author: 
[University of London Tutorial Classes for Working People]
Publication details: 
[University of London.] July 1911 and February 1914.
£80.00

Both items with shelfmarks, stamps and labels of the Board of Education Reference Library, London. ONE: 'University of London Tutorial Classes for Working People | Report of the University of London Joint Committee for the Promotion of the Higher Education of Working People on the Work of the Four Years 1909-1913'. February 1914. 23 + [1]pp., 4to. Stitched. In fair condition, on aged and worn paper. The only copies on COPAC and OCLC WorldCat at the British Library and King's College London. TWO: 'University of London.

[Pamphlet.] The Education of the Workers' Children. Being the substance of an Address to the London Trades Council on 13th June, 1907.

Author: 
A. A. Thomas, B.A., Barrister-at-Law, Standing Counsel to the National Union of Teachers
Publication details: 
'Printed by request.' Second edition. Published by the National Union of Teachers at their Offices, Bolton House, 67 & 71 Russell Square, London W1. [1907.]
£60.00

8pp., 12mo. Stitched. With stamps, label and shelfmark of the Board of Education Reference Library, otherwise in fair condition, on aged and worn paper. Scarce: no copy in the British Library, and the only copy on COPAC at the Bishopsgate Institute.

[Printed nineteenth-century handbill.] Copy of a curious Love Letter | From a young Gentleman in this Neighbourhood, to his Sweetheart, Miss W - , of this Town, which was found near this place yesterday morning.

Author: 
'T. B - l.' [nineteenth century handbill]
Publication details: 
Without place or date. [1830s?]
£56.00

1p., 12mo. Text enclosed within a decorative border. In fair condition, on heavily aged and worn wove paper, with a couple of small holes. Printed on cheap paper, with rough untrimmed edges. Beneath the title is a poem in two columns, itself titled 'Directions for Reading it.': 'Hast thou no pity on my woes? | Dost thou at me turn up thy nose? | I'll make my declaration first, | So read straight forward and be curst. | But if thy heart to me incline, | O!

[The Factory and Workshop Act, 1901.] Large printed Government 'abstract', headed 'WORKSHOPS. | FACTORY AND WORKSHOP ACT, 1901.' and mainly consisting of an 'Abstract | As prescribed by the Secretary of State, of the Factory and Workshop Act, 1901.'

Author: 
[The Factory and Workshop Act, 1901.]
Publication details: 
'Form 4. | (January 1902.)' 'may be obtained, either directly or through any Bookseller, of Eyre & Spottiswoode, East Harding Street, Fleet Street, E.C.; or Oliver & Boyd, Edinburgh; or E. Ponsonby, 116, Grafton Street, Dublin'.
£180.00

Printed on one side of a piece of 76 x 55 cm paper. In good condition, lightly-aged. At head of document the words 'Official Notice' and the royal crest. Folded into a 22 x 9.5 cm packet, docketted on reverse 'Statutory Notice | and | Workshop and Factory Acts'. The document begins with 'Notices. | To be filled up and signed by the Occupier.', followed by the 'Abstract', in two columns of small type, under the sub-headings 'Sanitation", 'Accidents', 'Employment and Meal Hours', 'Holidays', 'Outworkers', 'Piece Work.

['Public Baths for the Working Classes' in Nicolson Square, Edinburgh.] Three items relating to the project, two in manuscript (long circular letter, and accounts with 'Remarks') and printed prospectus.

Author: 
'Public Baths for the Working Classes' in Nicolson Square, Edinburgh; Charles Gardner, Secretary to the Committee; D. McLaren and William Johnston]
Publication details: 
Printed prospectus dated Edinburgh, 14 July 1847. Circular letter from Committee Rooms, Cranston's Temperance Coffee House, High St, Edinburgh; 1 August 1844. Accounts at 12 August 1844.
£450.00

Surprisingly little appears to have been written about the public baths at 12 Nicolson Square, Edinburgh; with no references to it on the Scottish Archives Network. There is however an informative reference to the subject in Francis H. Groome's 'Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland' (1884): 'Good public baths, of various kinds and various extent, for the upper and the middle classes, are in several parts both of the city and its environs. Public baths for the working classes were long a desideratum, though earnestly desired by many of the working classes themselves.

'Keith Grant Tribute' issue of 'The Daub', 'Group IV's magazine', for painting students at the Working Men's College in Camden, with review by Grant of 'diploma week' at the Royal College of Art', and 'Sketch Club Cuttings'.

Author: 
[Group IV; Working Men's College, Camden, London; Sketch Club; Keith Grant [Keith Frederick Grant] (b.1930), landscape painter, born in Liverpool, who studied at the Royal College of Art, 1955-1958]
Publication details: 
[Working Men's College, Camden, London.] July 1958.
£350.00

An interesting and scarce item. There are no copies of any issues of this magazine on either OCLC WorldCat or COPAC, and there is no record whatsoever of 'Group IV' itself. Now acknowledged as one of Britain's finest landscape painters, Keith Grant joined the Working Men's College on finishing his National Service with the RAF; he then enrolled at Willesden Art School, before joining the Royal College of Art, where he studied under Colin Hayes, John Minton and Kenneth Rowntree. 22pp., 4to.

[Printed parliamentary paper.] Strand Union Workhouse. Copy of the Report made by R. B. Cane, Esq., Poor Law Inspector, to the Poor Law Board, after an Inquiry held by him on the 4th and 6th June 1866, into certain Allegations made by Matilda Beeton.

Author: 
[R. B. Cane [Richard Basil Cane], Poor Law Inspector; Matilda Beeton, Head Nurse at the Strand Union Workhouse, Cleveland Street, London]
Publication details: 
Ordered, by The House of Commons, to be Printed, 25 June 1866.
£220.00

28 + [1] pp., 8vo. In fair condition, on aged and lightly-worn paper. P. 1 has the drophead title: 'STRAND UNION WORKHOUSE. | RETURN to an Order of the Honourable The House of Commons, | dated 25 June 1866; - for, | COPY "of the REPORT made by R. B. Crane, Esquire, Poor Law Inspector, to the Poor Law Board, after an Inquiry held by him on the 4th and 6th June 1866, into certain Allegations made by Matilda Beeton, in reference to the Treatment of the Sick in the Strand Union Workhouse." | Poor Law Board, 25 June 1866.

Unpublished early nineteenth-century manuscript poem, titled 'The Cockney Quack Doctor', satirising the London working clases and medical profession around the time of Dickens's 'Pickwick Papers'.

Author: 
[Anonymous nineteenth-century manuscript poem, satirising the London working classes and the medical profession; Charles Dickens; Pickwick Papers]
Publication details: 
Without place or date. [London, 1830s?]
£250.00

1p., 8vo. Aged and worn, having previously been folded into a tight packet, and laid down on a paper backing. Headed with the title, and neatly written in two columns. The poem consists of 60 lines arranged in six stanzas. The first and last stanzas indicate the tone.

Autograph Letter Signed ['G Shaw Lefevre'] from George John Shaw-Lefevre, later 1st Baron Eversley, regarding working conditions of miners.

Autograph Letter Signed ['G Shaw Lefevre'] from George John Shaw-Lefevre
Publication details: 
21 March 1892; on letterhead of 18 Bryanston Square.
£56.00
Autograph Letter Signed ['G Shaw Lefevre'] from George John Shaw-Lefevre

12mo, 1 p. Ten lines. Text clear and complete. Fair, on lightly-aged paper. He does not have 'sufficient information' to give an opinion on the question his unnamed correspondent refers to, 'namely whether a 5 days a week system would be preferable to Miners to an uniform 8 hours a day work'. The question is 'quite new' to him, and he 'must reserve an opinion till I know more about the subject'. Later in 1892 Shaw-Lefevre would be appointed First Commissioner of Works in Gladstone's government.

[Printed report, 1906.] Report on Safe-Guards for the Prevention of Accidents in the Manufacture of Cotton. By H. S. Richmond, One of His Majesty's Superintending Inspectors of Factories. Presented to both Houses of Parliament. [With 28 plates.]

Author: 
H. S. Richmond [British parliamentary report into the prevention of accidents in cotton mills, 1906]
Publication details: 
London: Printed for His Majesty's Stationery Office, by Darling & Son, Ltd, London. 1906.
£75.00

Folio, 22 pp, followed by 28 full-page plates of equipment designed to increase safety in the mills. Stitched. In original blue printed wraps. Text and plates clear and complete. Internally good, on aged paper. Wraps worn and chipped. Wraps with stamp and withdrawn stamp of University of Hull. No copy on COPAC or WorldCat.

Printed circular, in facsimile of copperplate handwriting, with actual signature of 'Rd J. Collis', discussing the state of the hop market, with probable quantity, quality, and value of the growth of 1853', following the 'Hop season of 1852'.

Author: 
[English hop market report, 1853; Victorian Kent and Sussex agriculture]
English hop market report, 1853
Publication details: 
27 September 1853; 241 Borough, London.
£56.00
English hop market report, 1853

4to, 1 p. Twenty-six lines. Text clear and complete. On grey paper. Small spike hole. Aged and lightly-creased. Describes the 'forbodings' which have been realised following 'the heavy rains and floods of the previous Autumn'. 'From 2000 to 3000 Pockets have already come to Market, and these are making, in samples of Sussex £8 to £9, the Cut, and in Kents £8. 8/. to £10. 10/. to £12;- mouldy and blighted, much lower. | Nothing choice in East or Mid Kents has, as yet, made its appearance, [...]'.

An Address on Temperance Societies.

Author: 
A FRIEND.' [Joseph Livesey, printer, Church-street, Preston, Lancashire; provincial printing; temperance societies]
Publication details: 
Undated [1850?]. Printed and Sold by J. Livesey, Church-street, Preston.
£65.00

12mo, 4 pp. Disbound bifolium. Text clear and complete. On aged and foxed paper, with some wear and chipping. 'The distillers, merchants, and dealers; the landlords, the brewers, and the owners of licensed houses - not to say the government itself - actuated by interested motives, have all done honour at the shrine of Bacchus; and when it is understood that about a million of persons are enriched or supported by this nefarious traffic, no wonder that the happy soil of England should be deluged with this liquid fire.' Following slug: '(1s. 4d.

Handbill resolution.

Author: 
Arthur Nicholson, Chairman of Meeting of Silk Manufacturers and Representatives, Leek, Staffordshire
Publication details: 
1902; 'THOMAS GRACE, PRINTER AND STATIONER, LEEK.'
£25.00

One page. Roughly 13 inches by 8 inches. In good condition, although slightly discoloured, creased from folding and with one very small closed tear. Reports the resolution of a meeting held at the Town Hall in Leek on 30 December 1901, that beginning on 1 January 1902 'the operatives shall give up the five minutes grace now allowed on entering Mills at 6.30 and after dinner'. Also states the working hours for week-days and Saturdays.

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