Featured Another penmanship book: Nathaniel Dearborn 1842

This is “The American Text Book for Letters” published by Nathaniel Dearborn in Boston, 1842. I got it at an estate auction back in the ‘70s. It was falling apart, so I had it re-backed. Don’t know if that was a good idea or not, but it’s a done thing. There is a problem with the pagination suggesting a couple of pages are missing. At a guess, those may have been flourishes as found in the book Aquitaine posted as there are none here. The book measures about 5” by 8”.




This book was published in several editions over the years and grew in the number of pages over the years. I don’t know if this was the first printing, but in this instance it’s probably not important.

The design of the front cover is repeated on the title page and includes a trompe l’oeil effect of a card pinned to the title. The card shows examples of monograms of letters and numbers in various hands, including one that combines all the letters of the alphabet.

 

Most of the plates showing penmanship are engraved plates.








There are typeset pages as well. Instructions for preparing quills, mixing inks (including gold and silver, and inks for parchment and linen), proper writing practices, how to write musical notation, are all included.






Glued inside the front cover is Nathaniel Dearborn’s tradecard.

 

@moreotherstuff, that’s terrific!!! I LOVE it!!!!! Makes me wonder if I should have mine conserved!!! I do know there’s one page missing in mine.....I like how yours looks!!! AND of course, yours is in much better condition than mine to begin with!!! I also like that they’re different!!! FUN STUFF!!!!

 

It even explains how to make one's own ink? Excellent! Thanks for sharing this.

 

interesting that Hebrew would be included........

 

When I had it re-backed, the binder said it was the ugliest Hebrew alphabet he had ever seen.

 

Yeah, you'd have to get hold of some feathers and experiment.

 

Interesting that it is “American“, and published in Boston, yet uses the spelling colour.
Love the little ditty printed under TO MAKE A GOOD PEN.
Neat item!

 

On the dedication page, the word "permission" is written with the old S-shaped-like-an-F, which I think was long out of fashion by the 1840s. Maybe he was just an old-fashioned kinda guy.

 

I don't think I'd be getting near any SWAN to get a feather, BUT maybe RAYO'd send us a couple of GOOSE feathers!!!!!!! (somehow I had completely missed reading THAT!!!!)

 

I thought Rayo has ducks !! U tired again ??

 

i'm not seeing that.....

 

Here ya go @Bookahtoo, NOW you can make your own quill pens!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

https://video.search.yahoo.com/yhs/...=add1395d0b3fd4b32e6df877c41fb715&action=view

 

NO!!! I thought he had geese too!!!! Oi Vey!!!!

 

There are 2 owner inscriptions, both named Woodworth.

At the front:


At the back:


The front one might have been written by Dearborn.
The one in the back is shaky, so likely by someone either very young, or elderly (my guess being the former).

 

This is a very cool find! Love it!
Leslie

 

Natick ..around 1843......that must have been interesting..

 

Very interesting. Thanks for sharing!