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Dissolution of Copartnership. John Grigg and Hugh Elliot this day retire…The undersigned…Lippincott, Grambo & Co. and will continue…
Philadelphia: [Grigg, Elliott & Co.], 1 January 1850. Circular, 10.65” x 8.25”, on blue paper. Address panel: “Addressed to Messrs Brubaker & Smith, New Holland, Penna.” and bearing a postal mark. CONDITION: Good, a few minor separations along old folds, discoloration to verso. An apparently unrecorded circular announcing changes in ownership at the Philadelphia book publishing business Grigg, Elliot, & Co. Founded by John Grigg in 1823 and purchased by J. B. Lippincott in 1849, Grigg, Elliot, & Co. was for a time the largest and most prosperous publishing firm in Philadelphia. Their stock included poetry, medical texts, school books, almanacs, bibles, and maps. John Grigg and Hugh Elliot, the senior partners of Grigg, Elliot, & Co., here announce their retirement from the firm and state that all the business of the copartnership will be settled by Grigg and Elliot at the store, located at No. 14, North Fourth Street. The men were authorized to use the name of the firm for the liquidation of its affairs, and they here request that all who are indebted to the late firm make payment at their earliest convenience. Continuing the business of Grigg, Elliot, & Co. at the same North Fourth Street location are J. B. Lippincott, Henry Grambo, Edmund Claxton, George Remsen, and Benjamin B. Willis, “with increased facilities at the old stand.” It is noted that Lippincott is the well known publisher of fine editions of Bibles, Prayer Books, etc., and that Claxton, Grambo, and Remsen have been “raised in the establishment, and know the wants of the old friends and customers of the house.” The circular concludes by assuring the public that “the business will be conducted upon the same principle as heretofore.” As noted by his obituary in The New York Times, Grigg (1792-1864) arrived in Philadelphia in 1816, where he found employment as a clerk for bookseller and publisher Benjamin Warner “and so gained the confidence of Warner, that the latter, who died soon afterward, expressed in his will that John Grigg should continue the extensive business.” Subsequently, “Mr. Grigg…opened a store in Fourth-Street, above Market, and began the book business on his own account.” About Grigg’s store, a notice on its 1824 opening in the National Gazette and Literary Register announced that “the Subscriber, who has had the management and disposal of the late Benjamin Warner’s stock, has commenced the book and stationary business…and now offers for sale, at very reduced prices, an extensive stock of Books and Stationary, consisting of…an extensive variety of the latest and most approved editions of English, Latin, and French School Books.” His obituary further notes that through his “economy, diligence, and sound business tact” Grigg “created a trade that reached to all parts of the Union, and realized him a large fortune. He continued at the head of the firm of Grigg, Elliot & Co., until 1850, when he withdrew and was succeeded by Joshua B. Lippincott, who purchased…Grigg and Elliott, and with the junior members…established the present house of J. B. Lippincott & Co.” No examples recorded in OCLC. REFERENCES: Advertisement, National Gazette And Literary Register (Philadelphia), January 15, 1824, p. 4; “Death of John Grigg, of Philadelphia,” The New York Times, August 5, 1864, p. 3.
Item #8748
Price: $275.00
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