[Scrapbook]: Early American Ephemera

Philadelphia: [circa 1780s - 1830s].

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Hardcover. Folio bound in early marbled paper-covered boards (7½” x 13”). The spine back is worn, most of the gatherings are loose, else overall very good. Housed in custom clamshell case. A remarkable assemblage of almost 400 pieces of ephemera mounted onto the printed tables [51 leaves] of a first edition of James Boydell’s *The Merchant-Freighter’s and Captains of Ships Assistant* (London, 1764). Included are very rare woodcut and letterpress broadsides, chapbook woodcuts, very early wood engravings and copperplate engravings (several hand-colored), many original drawings, illustrated trade cards, and other ephemera, mostly five to a page, with one in each corner and a larger central piece.

Included in the scrapbook is an elaborate hand-colored 1789 certificate for a New York fireman; three unrecorded late 18th Century sideshow broadsides: a giant toddler, an elephant, and a lion (dating from 1802); two important satirical engravings by James Akin; three early American hand-colored playing cards; trade cards (for a chair maker, merchant, fancy painter); and several cloth portrait silhouettes from Philadelphia’s Peale Museum. Among the other period pieces are several original pen & ink and wash drawings; various prints and portraits (by Benjamin Tanner, James Trenchard, and other early American engravers); and both printed and hand-colored ephemera: city views (mostly of Philadelphia, Boston, and New York), animals and birds, calling cards, trade advertisements, lottery tickets, historic and allegorical scenes, and handbills.

The scrapbook was assembled by a Mary Brown of Philadelphia: as indicated by her surname on a small paper label on the front cover, her first name composed of wood-engraved initials on a leaf at the back of the book, and by her full name written on a laid-in manuscript receipt (dated 1823). Largely compiled in the first decade of the 19th Century, there are also two later elements laid in: a hand-colored bookplate or calling card for one Samuel Weaver, along with a manuscript receipt made out to him from 1856. All 400 pieces have been artistically arranged around successive themes and visually striking patterns. The overall effect is that of a procession of images placed under the gaze of English schoolmaster Thomas Dilworth, whose engraved portrait, known to generations of school children learning to spell using pictures according to his method, is on the front pastedown.

An arresting grouping of many rare and unique pieces of ephemera, playfully arrayed in a striking style by a very precocious girl. Further details on request.


Item #389793

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Item #389793 [Scrapbook]: Early American Ephemera. Mary BROWN, Samuel Weaver, John Brown, Benjamin Tanner James Akin, James Trenchard.
[Scrapbook]: Early American Ephemera
[Scrapbook]: Early American Ephemera
[Scrapbook]: Early American Ephemera
[Scrapbook]: Early American Ephemera
[Scrapbook]: Early American Ephemera
[Scrapbook]: Early American Ephemera
[Scrapbook]: Early American Ephemera
[Scrapbook]: Early American Ephemera
[Scrapbook]: Early American Ephemera
[Scrapbook]: Early American Ephemera
[Scrapbook]: Early American Ephemera
[Scrapbook]: Early American Ephemera
[Scrapbook]: Early American Ephemera
[Scrapbook]: Early American Ephemera
[Scrapbook]: Early American Ephemera
[Scrapbook]: Early American Ephemera
[Scrapbook]: Early American Ephemera
[Scrapbook]: Early American Ephemera
[Scrapbook]: Early American Ephemera
[Scrapbook]: Early American Ephemera
[Scrapbook]: Early American Ephemera
[Scrapbook]: Early American Ephemera
[Scrapbook]: Early American Ephemera
[Scrapbook]: Early American Ephemera
[Scrapbook]: Early American Ephemera
[Scrapbook]: Early American Ephemera
[Scrapbook]: Early American Ephemera
[Scrapbook]: Early American Ephemera
[Scrapbook]: Early American Ephemera
[Scrapbook]: Early American Ephemera
[Scrapbook]: Early American Ephemera
[Scrapbook]: Early American Ephemera
[Scrapbook]: Early American Ephemera
[Scrapbook]: Early American Ephemera
[Scrapbook]: Early American Ephemera
[Scrapbook]: Early American Ephemera
[Scrapbook]: Early American Ephemera
[Scrapbook]: Early American Ephemera
[Scrapbook]: Early American Ephemera
[Scrapbook]: Early American Ephemera
[Scrapbook]: Early American Ephemera
[Scrapbook]: Early American Ephemera
[Scrapbook]: Early American Ephemera
[Scrapbook]: Early American Ephemera
[Scrapbook]: Early American Ephemera
[Scrapbook]: Early American Ephemera
[Scrapbook]: Early American Ephemera
[Scrapbook]: Early American Ephemera
[Scrapbook]: Early American Ephemera
[Scrapbook]: Early American Ephemera
[Scrapbook]: Early American Ephemera
[Scrapbook]: Early American Ephemera
[Scrapbook]: Early American Ephemera
[Scrapbook]: Early American Ephemera
[Scrapbook]: Early American Ephemera
[Scrapbook]: Early American Ephemera
[Scrapbook]: Early American Ephemera
[Scrapbook]: Early American Ephemera
[Scrapbook]: Early American Ephemera
[Scrapbook]: Early American Ephemera
[Scrapbook]: Early American Ephemera
[Scrapbook]: Early American Ephemera
[Scrapbook]: Early American Ephemera
[Scrapbook]: Early American Ephemera
[Scrapbook]: Early American Ephemera