Smith W J Metcalfe J E (2 results)

1st edn. 8vo. Original black lettered blue cloth (Fine), dustwrapper (lightly rubbed and worn at extrems - in protective cover, not price clipped). Pp. 148, illus with b&w frontispiece, b&w plate, facsimile copy letters and copy franking marks (publisher's neat date stamp on front endpaper).

Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. Dust Jacket Condition: VG-. 1st Edition. Blue cloth with black fr. & spine lettering, no obvious faults. f/piece + 148 + (1, photo) + (unf. yellow facs.)+ (4, blue facs. correspondence, 2 unfolding), 5 plates ex-pagination; pencil gift inscription top front end-paper probably from Smith, otherwise no obvious faults. Clean unclipped jacketunworn bar sl.top sp.rub, but scattered surface rubbing also. An exposure of how Roland Hill gained the credit for inventing the modern postage stamp when its previous locally documented invention by Dundee-based James Chalmers clearly establishes his priority, with Hill's removal of Chalmers's correspondence from H.M. Treasury offices gaining him the historical credit (a short 1891 publication regarding this by his son James Chalmers in incliuded). 13.5 cm x 19.5 cm.