A History of Booksellers, the Old and the NewCurwen, Henry
History
A History of Booksellers, the Old and the New
Curwen, Henry
Book industries and trade -- Great Britain -- History; Booksellers and bookselling -- Great Britain -- History
matter, was contributed by his partner, Beilby, but it was of course on
account of the illustrations that three large editions were called for
within three years. In this successful venture, the two partners were
associated with a printer of the name of Hodgson, and unfortunately,
after his death, the arrangement was made the grounds of dispute by
his widow, and Bewick was compelled to remove the printing of the work
to another establishment. In 1797 appeared the first volume of the
“History of British Birds,” and almost immediately afterwards, Beilby
retired from the partnership, leaving Bewick to produce and compile
the work alone. The tail-pieces in the first edition of the Birds
are considered Bewick’s _chefs d’œuvres_--as Professor Wilson says,
“There is a moral in every tail-piece--a sermon in every vignette....
His books lie on our parlour, bed-room, dining-room, drawing-room and
study tables, and are never out of place or time. Happy old man! The
delight of childhood, manhood, decaying age!” After founding a famous
school for wood-engravers at Newcastle--William Harvey was among his
pupils--Bewick died in 1828, leaving the business to his son, Mr. R. E.
Bewick.
Charnley left Bryson in 1755, and started a circulating library of 2000
volumes, the subscription being twelve shillings a year, and though
this method of disseminating books had only been practised in London
within the previous twenty years, we find that one Barba, who dabbled
likewise in prints and tea, had already been for some years in the
field. When Bryson died, Charnley succeeded to his business on the
bridge, and after having been washed out by an overflow of the river,
he removed to safer premises in the Great Market in 1777. Charnley died
in 1803. An anecdote connected with him is still gleefully told by the
Newcastle pitmen, and is worth repeating. He was deaf and obliged to
use an ear-trumpet; and on being accosted by a collier, he clapped, as
usual, his instrument to his ear, in order to catch the words. “Nay,
man,” cried the pitman, not to be imposed upon; “thou’s not gaun to mak
me believe thou can play that trumpet wi’ thy lug!”
Emerson Charnley succeeded his father, and was styled by Dibdin
“the veteran emperor of Northumbrian booksellers;” till 1860 this
old established business remained in the family, when it became the
property of Mr. William Dodd, for many years its manager.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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