1812 Autograph Letter Signed by William Stevenson (c.1750–1821), Publisher and Author.

Letter discussing letterpress for Piranesi prints, bookbinding, and other matters of the firm of Stevenson, Matchett, and Stevenson

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1812 Autograph letter signed by English publisher and author William Stevenson (c.1750–1821). Writing to Davidson Turner Esq. in Yarmouth, Stevenson discusses allowances or discounts upon “the Letter press to Pirranesi’s [sic] Prints” and “the Binding” as well as other publishing business of his firm Stevenson, Matchett, and Stevenson:

The History of Ely Cath[edra]l. is now at the bindery and I hope a Copy will soon be in your hands. You know Mr. Homprey bespoke a LP. [large paper] Copy… May I ask if you will permit me to enclose it to you & if you will receive the Money fecit [paid?] on Delivery. ... My Son is indisposed & I am obliged to stand in his shoes and Mr. Matchetts who is from home.

Per ODNB online: “William Stevenson (c.1750–1821), publisher and author, was the eldest son of the Revd Seth Ellis Stevenson (d. 1796), of East Retford, rector of Treswell, Nottinghamshire. William Stevenson went to Norwich as a miniature painter, having been a pupil of Reynolds, but from 1785 became proprietor of the Norfolk Chronicle, which he printed and published in partnership with John Crouse in Norwich market place. Stevenson was sheriff of the city in 1799. In 1812 he produced a new edition of James Bentham’s History of the Cathedral Church of Ely (1771), adding a substantial supplement in 1817 [see above]. He also edited John Campbell’s Lives of the British Admirals, to 1812. He contributed frequently to the Gentleman’s Magazine and Nichols’s Literary Anecdotes, and helped Elizabeth Bentley (1767–1839), the self-taught Norwich poet, to publish her first work.”

Price: $75.00