The above apprenticeship indenture was purchased recently to go into the biblio-ephemera collection here at ZHQ.

It is from February 1861 and apprentices William Gladwin, of 19 Arthur Street Derby, to Richard Keene of the Iron Gate, Derby, printer and bookseller, for a period of seven years to learn the art of printer, compositor and bookseller.

As usual it prohibits the apprentice from having any fun – “he shall not commit fornication nor contract matrimony within the said term. He shall not play at Cards or Dice Tables or any other unlawful Games … He shall not haunt Taverns or Playhouses nor absent himself from his said Masters service unlawfully”

Unfortunately there is no information on either master or apprentice on the BBTI, however Richard Keene is quite well known as an early photographer, particularly of Derbyshire (See Hannavy, Encyclopedia of Nineteenth-Century Photography, page 792)