Items

• A Warning to Profane Swearers.
  A chapbook— a small pamphlet folded from a single sheet—published by an offshoot of the Darton family, who specialised in children’s books in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. It contains two stories, embellished with woodcuts, intended to teach children about the dangers of swearing and the importance of telling the truth. The first tells the story of an unfortunate enslaved woman who was struck dead by lightning after blaspheming. The second is the often‑retold tale of the young George Washington refusing to lie about cutting down a cherry tree. Works such as this give an insight into the kinds of works deemed appropriate for children and social and moral opinions of the time.
• An Excellent New Song, Called "Rascals Ripe!" : In Which Some Account is Given of a Very Noted Character. Sung to the Tune of - "Cherry Ripe! Cherry Ripe!".
  A song sheet that pilloried the radical agriculturist and pamphleteer William Cobbett. It was first printed around 1820 and references several of his projects, including his promotion of new strains of corn and his attempt to bring Thomas Paine’s remains to Britain from America. The cartoon at the head of the song, by George Cruikshank, shows Cobbett selling his journal, the 'Political Register', to a hawker whose sign describes it as “two‑penny trash.” This label was coined by Cobbett’s opponents after he began selling the 'Register' as a two‑pence pamphlet to avoid newspaper taxes and make it accessible to readers in the labouring classes.
• An Old Ballad of Whittington and His Cat.
  This broadside tells the popular rags‑to‑riches story of Dick Whittington, the 15th‑century mayor of London whose tale—along with the cat that helped him earn his fortune—passed into folklore. It was a favourite subject for chapbooks and broadsides like this one, often accompanied by woodcut illustrations. This example was printed and sold by John Pitts, who was based in Seven Dials, Covent Garden. In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the area was a hub for cheap street literature.
• Cleckheaton Self-help Society Entertainment Playbill; Song
  This playbill advertises an evening of songs, music, and recitations held at the Co-operative Hall, Cleckheaton, on 4 December 1869. Organised by the Cleckheaton Self-help Society, the event reflects the popularity of self-help and mutual improvement movements in Victorian Britain. Societies like this encouraged working people to combine education, recreation, and moral improvement, often through lectures, reading groups, and cultural entertainments. The Co-operative Hall itself symbolised community ownership and civic pride. Though a single sheet, the playbill captures the aspirations and cultural life of an industrious Yorkshire town.
• Cobbett's Two-Penny Trash
  William Cobbett was a radical politician and journalist active during the first three decades of the 19th century. He produced a periodical, 'The Political Register', to share news and political commentary with the labouring poor. In 1816, when the government imposed heavy taxes on the radical press, Cobbett responded by publishing an unstamped version of the 'Register' for two pence—mockingly dubbed “two‑penny trash” by his detractors. Cobbett embraced the insult and adopted it as the title of a monthly version of his periodical. This issue, from November 1831, is part of the revived run of 'Two‑Penny Trash'. It survives today in much the same condition as when it was sold by hawkers nearly two hundred years ago: unbound, with the pages simply stitched together.
• Dutch Playbill for Doctor Silvester
  A playbill advertising a performance by the English magician Doctor Silvester, who toured Australia, New Zealand, and Southeast Asia during the 1870s and 1880s. This particular playbill promotes a show in Jakarta—then known as Batavia—and features an illustration of Doctor Silvester's "Beautiful Entranced Lady" aerial suspension illusion, performed with his daughter Daisy.
• Homogenic Love, and Its Place in a Free Society
  Socialist Edward Carpenter used his writing to advocate for new ways of living. This appeal for gay and lesbian equality was published in 1894, only the year before Oscar Wilde was imprisoned for his homosexuality. Carpenter had hoped this essay would be published as part of a collection but the text was deemed dangerous and was published as a pamphlet for private circulation only.
• Jane Eyre: A Drama in Five Acts
  This dramatisation of Jane Eyre is part of the Dick’s Standard Plays series and is based on a version first performed in New York in 1856. Publisher John Dicks capitalised on the Dramatic Copyright Act of 1833, which granted playwrights rights over the publication and performance of their works, to produce a series of inexpensive acting editions of classic and popular works. These editions included performance rights, appealing to a growing market of both theatre enthusiasts and amateur performers. The adaptation was written by actor, theatre manager, and prolific dramatist John Brougham. The cover features an eye‑catching illustration of a spectral Rochester appearing to Jane in a dream.
• Lane's Telescopic View of the Interior of the Exhibition
  This panorama folds out from a square to give a three-dimensional view of the interior of the 1851 Great Exhibition via a peephole. The Great Exhibition was the first World’s Fair held in the purpose-built Crystal Palace in London’s Hyde Park. It attracted over six million visitors, and many souvenirs, such as this one, were produced in a range of different forms.
• Olympic Circus
  James Bannister’s Equestrian Troup was one of the first touring circuses in Britain. From around 1810, the company toured Northen England and Scotland as the Olympic Circus, an offshoot of London’s Astley's Amphitheatre. This playbill is a rare survival that advertised a performance in Edinburgh in 1815. Bannister’s daughters were stars of the show, performing on the tight rope, slack wire and on horse back.
• Particulars of the Trial and Execution of William Goodsell
  A cheaply printed broadside, 'Particulars of the Trial and Execution of William Goodsell' records the public execution of a 19th-century criminal in vivid, sensational detail. Sold on the streets for pennies, it was never meant to last. Yet its survival offers a rare glimpse into how ordinary people encountered news, morality, and spectacle through print — a fragile reminder of how quickly information once travelled, and how easily it could have been lost.
• Penny Readings in the Corn Exchange
  These eight flyers, issued by the Worksop Mechanics’ Institute between December 1865 and February 1866, advertise a series of penny readings at the Corn Exchange. Penny readings were popular mid-Victorian entertainments, combining accessible instruction with amusement through songs, recitations, and music, all for the affordable price of one penny. Such events reflected the Mechanics’ Institutes’ mission to provide education and self-improvement for working communities, balancing learning with leisure. Printed by local firm Sissons & Sons, the surviving flyers, creased, foxed, and once folded, bear witness to their circulation and the enduring demand for affordable cultural life in industrial towns.
• Playing Card Magic Trick Prop
  Paper novelties took many forms in the 19th century, from paper dolls to magic tricks. This curious item combines eight printed playing cards with a gold‑coloured frame attached to two sheets of paper. It was likely a variation on parlour tricks in which cards appear and vanish within a framed window. It bears the stamp of J. Robinson & Sons, Importers of Scientific Novelties, 172 Regent Street, London. Robinson was a dealer in photographic equipment and does not appear to have traded extensively in magic props.
• S. West’s Sale Warehouse, For Unredeem’d Pledges, Corner of Fann’s
  This object has two sides—and two uses. It was originally a engraved copper printing plate for the trade cards for an emporium selling unredeemed pawnshop goods. This use, producing ephemeral business cards, dates to around 1800. Around 1810, the valuable copper found a new purpose as the support for a miniature oil painting of a bucolic landscape complete with a thatched farmhouse, overgrown ruins, and cattle in the foreground.
• Sir Richard's Daughter: A Christmas Tale of the Olden Times
  During the 19th century, printing presses entered the middle-class home, creating a boom in ‘parlour printing’. This is exemplified by the works of CHO Daniel, who was most famous for the works he printed in Oxford. This 1852 pamphlet is from Daniel’s earlier printing phase, based at his family home in Frome. Presented in a simple blue cover wrapper, the text is anonymous although likely to have been written by Wilson Clement Cruttwell.
• The Art of Fortune Telling, by Cards
  A chapbook on fortune telling printed in Bideford, Devon, around 1840. It has eye‑catching blue paper covers, with the title on the front and an image of Mother Shipton, a fortune‑teller popular in folklore, on the back. Inside, it describes the prophetic meanings of cards in a standard deck, from the ace of clubs promising wealth and prosperity to the deuce of spades signifying a coffin. The chapbook reflects the period’s fascination with prophecies and fortune‑telling, and with learning to practise them oneself.
• The Blessings of Peace or, The Curse of the Corn Bill
  George Cruikshank was one of the leading caricaturists and illustrators of the 19th century. Early in his career he produced prolific work on satirical prints, pamphlets, and broadsheets. A particularly fruitful collaboration was with the writer, satirist, and free‑press campaigner William Hone on a series of sharply political pamphlets. Cruikshank’s work skewered the state of politics and society in the turbulent Georgian age. This print targets the first of the Corn Laws, passed in 1815 to restrict the importation of foreign grain after the end of the Napoleonic Wars. The legislation raised the cost of living for the poorest classes, provoking riots and fierce public opposition.
• The History of Little Fanny : Exemplified in a Series of Figures.
  This pamphlet with printed paper‑doll cards is a facsimile of the first commercially produced paper‑doll kit. Paper crafts used to make toys and other novelties have existed for thousands of years, but printing made it possible to produce and distribute them commercially, and produced a growing market of toys and books for children. This facsimile was published by bibliographer Robin Alston’s Scolar Press, which produced low‑cost editions of important English works that were often scarce and survived in small numbers.
• The Radicals Unmasked and Outwitted; or, The Thistle Uprooted in Cato-field / With an Engraving of the Radical Parliament.
  An anti‑radical poem, published in 1820, celebrating the discovery and arrest of a group of revolutionary radicals. In February of that year, the group plotted to assassinate Prime Minister Lord Liverpool and his cabinet as a first step toward overthrowing the government. The conspirators had been involved in earlier riots and were motivated by outrage over the Peterloo Massacre and the repressive Six Acts—legislation aimed at quelling dissent through measures such as banning “seditious” meetings and taxing pamphlets to restrict radical ideas. The pamphlet attacks prominent radical politicians and activists, and warns against the conspirators’ violent aims. Its coloured frontispiece by George Cruikshank vividly depicts the conspirators preparing for revolution.