Items
Details
Title
Pocket books.
Created/published
London?, 1716/18.
Description
2 vols.
Associated name
Lowndes, William, 1652-1724, author.
Note
This is a PRELIMINARY RECORD. It may contain incorrect information. Please email catalog@folger.edu for assistance.
Place of creation/publication
Great Britain -- England -- London.
Item Details
Call number
FAST ACC 271916 (quarto)
Folger-specific note
From dealer's description: "POCKETS BOOKS--[LOWNDES, WILLIAM] Parker's Ephemeris For the Year of our Lord 1716 [1718]. By the Author, 1716 [1718]. 2 volumes, each bound with blank pages, including two leaves of erasable silvered paper, used during the year for detailed personal financial memoranda, some entries in shorthand, altogether 147 manuscript pages, plus blanks, 8vo, both bound in dark green morocco elaborately gilt in cottage roof style with silver bosses and stylus hooks, 1718 volume retaining original stylus for erasable paper, paper labels on covers, 1716 volume lacking one boss and some general wear to bindings, 11 leaves at rear of 1716 volume detached. ...I knew once a very covetous, sordid fellow, who used frequently to say, "Take care of the pence; for the pounds will take care of themselves." This was a just and sensible reflection in a miser... (Lord Chesterfield on William Lowndes, Letters to his Son, 4 November 1747). Chesterfield's caustic comment on the keeper of these pocket books, the treasury official William Lowndes (1652- 1724), is the first recorded use of this famous piece of advice on household economy. These volumes preserve a meticulous record of the expenditure of a man who profited greatly from his long tenure at the Treasury, including extensive personal payments - a new wig, his son's apothecary bill - as well as substantial expenses relating to his property, such as work on the Manor House at Chesham, Buckinghamshire. True to his own maxim, he makes as careful a note on pennies spent on "small beer" for servants as he does on thousands of pounds invested in the South Sea Company." Ordered from: Christopher Edwards, D9275, 2019-12-13 at Sotheby's Auction "English Literature, History, Children's Books and Illustrations", 10 Dec 2019, Lot 5