[Rarebooks] fa: MEMOIR OF WILLIAM VAUGHAN re. LONDON DOCKS, COMMERCE 1796 & 1839 - INSCRIBED

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Listed now, along with other Exploration & Naval History, auctions ending Sunday, January 13. More details and images can be found at the URL below or by searching under the seller name arch_in_la.

http://tinyurl.com/ahbb9pw

Thanks again,
Ardwight Chamberlain
L.A.


Memoir of William Vaughan, Esq. F.R.S. With Miscellaneous Pieces Relative to Docks, Commerce, Etc. London: Smith, Elder, & Co., 1839. [BOUND WITH:] Reasons in Favour of the London-Docks. [n.p., n.p.]: 1796. FIRST EDITIONS. Two works bound in one volume; 8vo; early (original?) pebbled cloth with printed paper spine label; viii, 134, [2] pp.; [2], 9, [2] pp.; portrait frontispiece.

INSCRIBED on the front free-endpaper: "Mrs. Goodwin from the author." William Vaughan (1752-1850) was a leading London merchant and a tireless  promoter of canals and docks to service the city's burgeoning shipping and commerce. Half American himself, he was a friend and correspondent of  Benjamin Franklin, and page 115 of the present work find his advice that  Franklin's Poor Richard's Almanac "should be hung up in every cottage." "During the naval mutiny at the Nore in 1797 Vaughan formed one of the committee of London merchants convened to… take prompt  measures to restore tranquillity. He proved extremely active, and independently drew up a short address to the seamen which was put in circulation by the naval authorities. In 1791 he had endeavoured to form  a society for the promotion of English canals, and, with this end in view, made a collection, in three folio volumes, of plans and descriptions relating to the subject. Failing in his object, he turned his attention to docks, on which he became one of the first authorities.  From 1793 to 1797 he published a series of pamphlets and tracts advocating the construction of docks for the port of London, and on 22 April 1796 he gave evidence before a parliamentary committee in favour of the bill for establishing wet docks. The great development of London  as a port must be regarded as partly due to his unceasing exertions" (DNB). 

This copy has one of Vaughan's earlier pamphlets (1796), elucidating twenty-seven "Reasons in favour of the London-Docks," bound in at the rear. The Memoir includes sections entitled: State of the Port of London in 1793; Metropolis and Port of London in 1836; Commerce and England; Inland Navigation and Canals; On Ship-building and the Preservation of Timber; Royal Exchange Assurance; Address to British Seamen on the Mutiny at the Nore; Poor Richard exemplified; etc. Binding shows wear at the extremities with loss at the spine ends, bubbling to the cloth, browning and chipping to the spine label; front joint and hinge cracked, secured with paper repair to the front gutter, rear hinge starting; spotting to the frontispiece and title-page; toning and light spotting to the pamphlet title-page; otherwise the contents are quite clean and sound. An uncommon title, especially so inscribed by the author.