In the center of a book-lined room the bookseller, with a pen behind his ear, his hands in his pockets, glasses pushed to the top of his head, stands looking down disdainfully at a manuscript being offered to him by a thin, timid looking man who stands nervously with his hat tucked under his arm. A clergyman with spectacles, his back to the two other gentlemen, perusing the shelves, stops to examine a volume. In the left foreground on the floor, in front of a library step stool, is a pile of books. Another pile of books lies in the right foreground in front of a door with a glass panel and curtains in the top half. To the left of the door is a sloping writing table with paper, ink stand, and pen.

• Printmaker: Alken, Samuel, 1756-1815, printmaker.
• Title: Bookseller & author [graphic] / H. Wigstead delint. ; S. Alken fecit.
• Published: [London : Publish’d Septr. 25, 1784, by I.R. Smith, No. 83 Oxford Street, 1784]

Catalog Record  & Digital Collection

784.09.25.01+

Acquired December 2007