  Overseal, Ashby de la Zouch. Sir,—I should be very much obliged to any of your correspondents who will give me information respecting Mr. Lavers, a bookseller in London, who flourished about the third quarter of the last century; especially any thing relating to his wife and descendants. Very faithfully yours, 13th Feb. a.d. 1852. Tradesmen's Tokens.—Can any of your readers inform me if there are any Tradesmen's Tokens of Scotland, issued during the 17th century; and if not, can any cause be assigned for it. I have a very large collection of tokens of the 17th century, of England, Wales, and Ireland, but not one of Scotland, which is very singular, as the towns of Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Sterling, Perth, &c. must have had as great need of a small currency, as many small villages in England, of which there are many specimens. By far the most numerous of the English tokens belong to the Southern and Midland districts: of the city of Oxford alone I have 62 varieties. The Northern Counties are much fewer in number: of Cumberland I have only tokens of two towns, Carlisle and Cockermouth; of Northumberland, the town of Newcastle only; of Westmoreland, Appleby, Kendal, and Kirby Steven. The ordinary value is the halfpenny for the Southern Counties, having usually the Arms of some Company of the City of London, and the initials of the issuer, his wife and family name, with the name, trade and business at full length. The great bulk of these tokens are of a monotonous character, with a few curious exceptions. One of square shape, issued by Thomas Dedicot, in Bewdley, has the legend, "Square Dealing." A copper token of Worcester, has a brass plug in the centre. A facetious Boniface of Leeds gives us the double-entendre, "Beware the Beare," with his sign of the Bear. To make the catch better, it should be known that in Yorkshire, Beer and Bear, are pronounced alike. The device and motto of the Baron Bradwardine is consequently older than the time of the author of Waverley. Roger Dickinson, of Robin Hood's Bay, affects a heart-shaped token, on which are represented the popular heroes, Robin Hood and Little John: Little John is represented half the size of Robin Hood, instead of being considerably taller, not knowing he was so nick-named from his gigantic stature. There are other tokens of octagon and diamond shape. The Welsh tokens are generally of very good execution: the halfpenny of Edward Lloyd, of Kidwelly, is very neat; a few of Carnarvon are small, and issued at one penny, of a similar character to those of Ireland, which I have next to mention. The Irish tokens are of a different character to those of England and Wales, being generally small, issued at one penny, and the issuer styling himself Marchant. The penny token of John Whittle, of Kilkenny, 1656, has the Arms of the Commonwealth on it; the only instance that I know of: the King's Arms are plentiful enough. Besides the list of towns given by Lindsay in his "View of the Coinage of Ireland, 1839," I can add from my collection, Ballinasloe, Downpatrick, Loughrea, Mount-Mellick, Navan and Roscommon, besides many varieties of the towns Mr. Lindsay has published. The circulation of these tokens was forbidden under severe penalties in 1673, but in Ireland they were continued partially to near the close of the 18th century, when another general issue of tokens throughout Great Britain was allowed by Government, owing to the great scarcity of small money. The tokens of this period are of an entirely different size and character to those of the preceding century. Wm. Boyne. Leeds, Feb. 1852. Lithography.—Some years ago, letters and papers of William Combe, the well known author of "Dr. Syntax," came into my possession, and with them a paper, of which the following is a copy:—
Combe was so intimately connected with Ackermann's establishment, that there can be no doubt of the fact that the paper I have, was truly the very first impression in Lithography in England. The poetic scrap was no doubt Combe's own, and the facsimile shews that it was in Combe's writing. Robt. Cole. 52, Upper Norton Street. Sterne's Autograph.—As mentioned by A. C. K. in "Current Notes" for January, p. 2, as occurring on the title page I have two (the title pages only) in my possession. Robert Cole. 52, Upper Norton Street. |
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