For sale by candle at Garraway's Coffee-House,

Auction catalogue. A rare auction catalogue listing items ranging from '400 bags saltpetre' to '6 chests rhubarb' to '6 bales Tripoli madder root.' Inscribed in the upper left corner as belonging to Messrs. Howard Jewel and Co., the company's representative carefully noted the price and often the purchaser of each item. The tincal (crude, native borax) seems to have been a particular item of interest for the holder of this brochure; receipts attached to p.3 relate to the delivery of samples of the chests up for sale.

'Auction by candle' or 'sale by inch of candle' was one of the normal ways in which auctions were organised until about the turn of the 19th century. There are two main variations. In one a short candle (usually about an inch) is lit and bidding continues until it goes out, and the last bid made before it goes out is the one that stands. Alternatively, a pin or nail is stuck into a lighted candle, and the bidding stops when it falls out. The present catalogue is a relatively late example, the practice generally dying out around the end of the eighteenth century.

Auction catalogue (42 x 17 cm); pen annotations in a contemporary hand throughout, two small note papers tipped in to p.3, very light damp staining to margins; original stitched binding loose but holding, edges with tears; 9, [1]pp.