Antique 1844 HANDWRITTEN COMMONPLACE BOOK Poetry Journal BIRD PAINTING Album

Description

Up for sale is this lovely antique commonplace/friendship book belonging to one E. C. Fortes of Long Island, New York.  The book contains a variety of poems, excerpts, etc.  One of the poems is illustrated with a lovely original watercolor painting of a bird.  The book is also illustrated with 3 hand colored botanical engravings, a hand colored title page, 9 black and white steel engravings, and an additional black and white illustrated tile.  Only about 1/3 of the journal has content.  There are approximately 30 pages of handwritten content; approximately 55 leaves are completely blank.  The blank leaves are mixed between the leaves with content.  One of the first page gatherings juts out slightly further than the rest as a result of a previous repair.  The covers have some moderate rubbing and wear.  The binding is good and sound.  The interior pages are lightly toned from age with some occasional foxing, soiling & grubbiness.  Some pages have a bit of fading to the ink.  A few pages may have a small chip or tear, creased page corner, light wrinkle, etc.  Most of the entries are dated to the 1840's.  The book measures approximately 7 3/4 inches by 6 inches.  All in all a really wonderful old friendship journal.  Please look at all of the photos to further note the condition.