An uncommon title recently re-bound in brown buckram over boards with original leather spine relaid; gold spine bands and lettering; red morocco label. Boards clean, corners sharp, no rubbing. Tightly bound, strong hinges. Bookplate of the library of Inner Temple stamped ‘Withdrawn’ mounted on front paste-down. Binders’ ticket of Riley Dunne and Wilson on rear paste-down. Small square Library stamp of Inner Temple at foot of the verso of the illustration of Richard Oastler. Illustrations browned; two small tears and missing corners to ‘Fixby Hall’. Occasional spotting to text; pencilled marginal lines to the first ten letters; off-setting (rusted paperclip mark) pp 42-43.
As a volume made up of bound individual numbers, the collation is necessarily complicated: Vol I (Letters 1 to 52; January 2 to December 25, 1841) through Vol II (Letters 1 to 18; January 1 to April 30, 1842) bound together in a single volume; pp39-40 of Vol II misbound after p32; missing Vol II pp145-146 (Letter 18). 70 weekly 4 page letters, bound with 4 lithograph plates (’Fixby Hall near Huddersfield, Yorkshire’, ‘Richard Oastler 12 Coffee Gallery Fleet Prison Dec 9 1840’, ‘[Thomas Thornhill -] To Mr R Oastler, your sincere friend Th. Thornhill’ and ‘The Fleet Prison’). Lacking Volume title-pages. A good bound copy of these letters written by the ‘Factory King’ Richard Oastler (1789-1861) including advocating changes to factory laws - notably limiting the hours worked by children - written during his term in debtors prison where he languished on account of his opposition to the new poor laws.
