***Livre Rare Book
[POST OFFICE]:Biblio.com
LONDON POST OFFICE 'EASTERN DISTRICT' MANUSCRIPT LETTER BOOK.
1870réf. 1851Original manuscript. 1870-1906. 32 x 21cm. Contemporary full burgundy roan with titles in gilt to the spine "Correspondence E" and working metal clasp. Marbled endpapers. Decorative engraved stationer's label for Waterlow & Sons to the front pastedown. The contents comprising approximately 480pp. of manuscript ink text on blue lined-paper with many notices circulars and other item inserted throughout with a detailed index. The binding remains secure with heavy rubbing to the spine and boards and with chipping to the spine ends and board corners. The contents with cracking to the front hinge the front free endpaper detached a couple of leaves with large tears and with the occasional smaller tear elsewhere and with a little wear to the edges of some of the inserted sheets. An extensive letter book for Post Offices operating within London's Eastern District during the late nineteenth century including transcriptions of official letters orders and notices regarding all aspects of mail delivery the conduct of post office employees and the operation of postal system at large the book almost entirely dealing with the 1870s-1890s. Typical entries include: "proceedings in cases of intoxication" of employees; instructions for the supply of uniforms to the Boy Sorters employed in the Metropolitan District this comprising a blouse and trousers every eight months and a belt once in three years; details regarding the introduction of a 'boatage' fee to be levied on all messages for delivery after dark at the docks; concerns of compressed cotton spontaneously igniting in post office storerooms; procedures for the delivery of circulars; a note from the Royal Mint solicitors with instructions should spurious coins be offered at post offices; notice that messages intended for conveyance by the Eastern Railway should be handed to the post boy at Liverpool Station thus saving the transmission by wire to the Shoreditch PO; notes 1881 on diseases and the workplace including measles and scarlet fever; a letter dated 1870 discussing pay structure for the Eastern District PO - "one postmaster £500 one clerk £260 increasing by £10 to £350 two clerks £80 three inspectors £130 fourteen sub-sorters 16/- sixty-two letter carriers 18/- and eleven sorters 24/-"; another dated 1870 extending night delivery in Leytonstone district to the Merchant Seaman's Orphan Asylum with additional expense for the extra work involved; detailed records regarding the number of registered letters delivered during various years the number delivered during 1874 in the Eastern District recorded as 36307; closure of PO in Stoke Newington; rules for prolonged leave and other leave of absence notes; a list of post offices pillar and wall boxes opened in the Eastern District during various years; details of pay increases to letter carriers in Bethnal Green and Bow with additional boy sorters to assist; pay structures for male and female employees; a letter from the postmaster in 1876 relating that no boy under fourteen years old is to be taken on as a telegraph messenger; information regarding the cost duration and leasing of private boxes; an application for outdoor boy telegraph messengers; a confidential circular raising concerns regarding theft from letters by employees with betting habits; amongst many many other things. An uncommon and in-depth insight into the workings of the capital's postal system previously forming part of the collection of the celebrated Bath Postal Museum prior to its closure. Provenance: Ex. Bath Postal Museum. [Original manuscript]. hardcover
Sky Duthie Rare Books · Royaume-Uni375,00 £GB≈ 446,28 €
