Tea

'You would do well to realise': Sir William James Ingram Managing Director of the Illustrated London News. Autograph Letter Signed negotiating the purchase of newspapers from another proprietor.

ref. 25877 — 3 November 1899; 198 Strand W.C. London on cancelled letterhead of The Bungalow Westgate-on-Sea. A significant figure unaccountably unrepresented in the Oxford DNB. An interesting item casting light on the way business was conducted in the world of nineteenth-century newspaper proprietorship. 4pp 12mo. Bifolium. In fair condition lightly aged and worn. Folded for postage. The recipient evidently a fellow newspaper proprietor is not named and the letter is signed ‘William Ingram’. Begins: ‘My dear Sir / I have talked over the matter of purchase of your papers with my brother and he is of the opinion that our deal ought to include the 3d gardener’s paper as the two have always been worked together - he thinks ten years purchase less 10% would be a fair price - the 10% would cover all commission and cost of audit examination etc - this would give you a clear 9 years’ purchase’. In Ingram’s opinion the recipient ‘would do well to realise as in these days of never ending competition the older one gets the more difficult it is to tackle the worry of these incessant attacks’. For his own part he would not ‘undertake any new ventures’ if he did not have ‘young sons to help me’. 3 November 1899; 198 Strand, W.C. [London], on cancelled letterhead of The Bungalow, Westgate-on-Sea. unknown