He sells old news older the better

Press, 24 March 1977, Page 17

He sells old news older the better

By

JOHN ROSS

David Godfrey sells newspapers — most of them more than 100 years old. On the walls of his recently-opened Knightsbridge shop in London you can read about the landing of Bonnie Prince Charlie in Scotland in 1744; or a first-hand account of the Mutiny on the Bounty in an issue of 1796; or of the ghosts in Newgate Prison in 1820; or the execution of two highwaymen in 1822. Or of the cannibalistic habits of the “New Zealand savages” in 1834.

The American Civil War and the conquests of Napoleon are reported in detail, as is the amusing case of a Miss Hannah

Murton, of Taunton, Devon, who died in September, 1814, at the age of

by. / According to the “Courier,” she was “a maiden lady who vowed several years ago that no he fellow should ever touch her, living or dead.” The “Courier,” dated September 12, 1814, continues: “In pursuance of this notable resolution, about 10 years since she purchased for herself a coffin in which, whenever she felt serious illness, she immediately deposited herself, thus abridging, in case of her dissolution, the labours of those sable mimics the undertakers, and ensuring the gratitude of her peculiar sensibility.” The paper adds: “The old lady’s coffin was not, however, exclusively appropriated to the reception of her mortal remains, but also served as her wardrobe, and the usual depository of her bread and cheese.”

Mr Godfrey opened his shop, Antiquarian Newspapers, a few weeks ago, and admits business is unlikely to pick up until the tourist season begins. Most of his income is derived from supplying newspapers containing items of particular interest to more than 700 clients. Interests range from Robert Burns to Red Indians, highwaymen to wreckers, military history to Western Australia.

A tall, gangling man who wears a sports jacket and rimless spectacles, David Godfrey was a bank clerk for several years, until he got fed up with

the routine, and took to collecting and selling newspapers. His best customer, he confides, is a Dunedin man who has been collecting newspapers for many years, and who has sent Mr Godfrey his only New Zealand papers — several copies of the “Otago Daily Times,” from 1880 to 1890. Most of his thousands of newspapers have been

bought from booksellers, and the selling price of each paper ranges from $4.50 to $45 — depending on age, condition, and news content.

Spotlights, a fan, and specially tinted glass are used to protect the papers, some of which are over 300 years old. A copy of The Newes, published in 1664 "for the satisfaction and information of the people” is priced at $45. The next year the Oxford “Gazette,” later to become the London “Gazette,” was published. It was a singlesheet paper with two columns, and was more closely related to today’s newspapers than the

pamphlet-style Newes. Although there is little demand for New Zealand

newspapers, Mr Godfrey says that he had found accounts of events in New Zealand published in British papers, “quite fascinating.” The Edinburgh Advertiser of November 11, 1774, published “an authentic account of the miserable fate of 10 men belonging to the Adventurer. lately returned from the South Seas, who were surprised by the savages in New Zealand, and eaten.”