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
“A trade token issued by the famed bookseller James Lackington (1746-1815), the same year he opened the Temple of the Muses, ‘one of the wonders of London’ (Oxford DNB); with reputedly a million books on display, it was at the time the biggest bookshop in the world. Tokens such as these were issued in many places in England in the late eighteenth century, when the government failed to mint enough copper coinage for the conduct of business. According to Oxford DNB, Lackington issued thousands of such tokens, which were only valid at his shop. All were struck by Lutwyche of Birmingham.”–British Museum online catalogue.
