Commerce

1736 · 3222 — Lichfield England 1736. Oblong document on vellum upper edge scallopped 143 x 214 mm. recto with letterpress form accomplished in manuscript in brown ink slightly faded but legible one passage erased large woodcut armorial initial and 2 pence duty mark strip of three blue sixpence stamps red wax seal paper stamp on verso. Slight soiling to corners and part of top edge.<br /> <br /> A bookseller joins the toy trade: Robert Shaw son of the Lichfield bookseller of the same name agrees to an apprenticeship of seven years during which he promises to serve his master keep his secrets to not waste or lend his Goods; and “Taverns Inns or Ale-houses he shall not haunt At Cards Dice Tables or any other unlawful Game he shall not playâ€. For this the toymaker Richard Robinson agrees to pay 5 pounds into the public charity pledges to feed and lodge his new Apprentice and added in manuscript promises his father Robert Shaw Sr. “to fund and provide for his said Son wearing apparell of all sorts as well Linens as Woolens during the said term.â€<br /> <br /> Lichfield Staffordshire was the childhood home of Samuel Johnson 1709-1784 whose father Michael Johnson was also a bookseller; as a boy Johnson sometmes bound books for his father to help earn money. Contemplation of the latter’s debt-ridden career may throw light on the motives of his colleague Shaw Sr. in sending his son out to learn another profession. <br /> <br /> A bookseller Robert Shaw is known from archival sources including a payment to him in 1737 by Lichfield Cathedral for lettering books in the library cf. Peter Hanks The Bookbinder and Historical Invisibility: Bookbinding and the Staffordshire book trade 1750-1850 thesis University of Wolverhampton 2024. Booksellers in this period were more involved in actual book production and their duties included supplying bookbindings. <br /> <br /> A colleague who previously owned this document remarked: “I have not been able to determine how Robert Shaw the Younger fared in the toy trade or if he was able to follow the indenture’s commandment `Taverns Inns or Ale-houses he shall not haunt’ which he never could have done if he’d followed his father into bookselling.†unknown