In honour of Burns, some Scottish bookseller labels. As you would expect, they are mainly from the two largest cities, Glasgow and Edinburgh, but a few from elsewhere, including Aberdeen (one upside down), Alloa, Dumfries (where Burns died), Galashiels and Perth

A handsome mid-late eighteenth century booksellers label, John Payne ‘at the Feathers in Paternoster Row’. One of the larger examples (100mm x 70mm) in size, attractively engraved. The BBTI shows Payne as working between 1744-1787, at four different addresses all on Paternoster Row. He was at 15 Paternoster Row between 1752 and 1758, then at ‘Pope’s Head’, followed by the Feathers and finally at 54 Paternoster Row.

Raven, in his ‘The Business of Books’, notes that Payne, who was a friend of Dr. Johnson’s, moved to the Feathers in 1765 and moved to 54 Paternoster Row in ‘about’ 1767 – Confusingly there was another John Payne in Paternoster Row, the business partner of Joseph Johnson who later published Paine, Godwin and Wollstonecraft.

A few more for you today, most, if not all, of our Irish bookseller labels. Mainly Dublin and Belfast, but one from Cork and one from Waterford