Dreadful Fire in Fleet-street

AN EARLY GO-FUND-ME ACCOUNT SET UP FOR A PRINTER!

[SWAN, James, printer]. Dreadful Fire in Fleet-Street. 8vo broadside, 8 3/4 x 5 ½". [London:] T. Davison, Printer, Whitefriars [1807].

On August 20TH, 1807, the printing office of John Swan, Crown-court, corner of Salisbury-square, was destroyed by fire, as were four other houses. According to Timperley, Swan's loss was £2000 above his insurance. A report of the fire was carrried in The Times, 21 August 1807. This 30-line broadside describes his loss and extols the virtues of the man himself, while appealing for funds on his behalf. Lost were "his stock in trade, his household furniture, his wearing apparel, and all his comforts and prospects in life…" Below the text are the names of 37 subscribers to the fund, and the amounts subscribed for, many of them printers, including, ironically, Thomas Bensley, whose warehouse containing much literary property was destroyed by fire less than three months later, on November 5th. Other subscribers were Longman and Co., John Johnson, Darton and Harvey, as sell as Davison, our printer of this broadside, George Kearsley, Vernor, Hood & Sharpe, as well as at least five bankers, and one M.P. Subscriptions to be received at one of three named banking-houses. Dated London, August 27th, 1807. Swan was active as a printer from 1799-1829. Evidence of mounting at left edge on verso, otherwise fine. The only recorded copy we have found is in the St. Bride Foundation Institute, Catalogue of the Technical Reference Library of works on printing and the allied arts, #2408.