Handwritten or printed poem on this book plate?

This lovely mid-19th century book plate includes a poem written in script. Even under a loupe, I can't tell if the poem was also printed or was hand-written directly on the print?

I'm experienced in figuring out printing processes and the approximate age of prints, but not with handwritten material and not sure exactly what to look for?

This is what I do know...

-- The black elements are a lithographic print using a pre-photomechanical process.
-- The colored areas appear to be hand-painted, which fits the era.
-- The poem, which is missing the first stanza here, appeared in two publications in 1837 and 1843.
-- I don't know what publication my plate appeared in, but feel sure it's an original print.
-- The printer, John Henry Bufford, was a noted Boston lithographer whose work appeared in many books and periodicals.

Does anyone have thoughts on the handwriting and/or tips on what to look for?

 

I think handwritten. See the slight variations in the ink and the way the word "wreath" has been corrected? It also appears that there are faint pencil lines on which the writing was done.

 

My wild guess is hand written because the ink has not faded consistently and there is ::almost:: a mistake in the word "wreath" above.

 

sniped!^^

The thing I don't get is why the "s"es are more modernly written, yet one (or more) is not. It's as though the writer was trying to switch to the more modern style of "s". Perhaps Fig will know about what date the transition was first initiated towards a less fancy "s". See my example in the word "blossom" above.

 

Wow Bakers, I cannot see the penciled lines at all! You must have a much better monitor than on my laptop! Good eyes, great catch! I believe that would cinch my guess of handwritten! Thank you.

 

i see the lines too......on a 21 inch AOC monitor....

 

I didn't see the lines until I "zoomed" in on the picture.

 

Thanks, Bakers and Anti.

Bakers, where do you think you see pencil lines? Even under a loupe, I didn't notice any.

 

Anti, I believe the word at the bottom left is "Essex," a town in Massachusetts. So it looks like when there were two "s"'s in a row, the first one was done the old way.

I'm going to pursue looking up the name at the bottom right and "Essex." I don't know if the name was the poet's or the person whose handwriting we're looking at.

 

Ah, blown up in Photoshop, I think I see pencil lines, too, plus possibly handwritten text that was erased. I'll create jpegs and post what I'm seeing.

 

The lines I see are most visible to the immediate left of the first words in the poem lines in the middle of the first stanza.

 

Here's what looks like underlining, to the left of the words...

 

Yup, that's what my image is showing, Bakers.

 

Here, too, between the two words...

 

Glad to know that my mind wasn't just generating what I thought should be there.

 

Not at all... you have a good eye!

I swear I see erased handwriting on the left here. But I need new glasses and the astigmatism in my good eye makes me see things that aren't there. What do you all think?

 

I can't tell, but there is definitely something extra above the th in the word thought.

 

it looks like the line extended there...but with all the texture...you could put a line anywhere and see ghosts...

 

Oh, my, I may have found the woman who wrote the poem. I found a Miss W. A. Post, who I think it's saying lived at the time in Essex. The reference is in the "First Annual Report of the American and Foreign Bible Society," presented April 28, 1838 and published in NY in 1838.

http://tinyurl.com/omla2ga

Of the two publications that included this poem, the first was this...

"The parlor book: or, Family encyclopedia of useful knowledge and general literature," by Rev. John Lauris Blake, 1837.

 

In case anyone's interested, there's an interesting section about Rev. Blake in this book...

http://tinyurl.com/pkr3n7x

It turns out that when he was young he taught in Bedford, MA, a nearby town where my husband has a part-time job and where I looked for houses before we bought our present one.

It's amazing the incidental learning from looking up one thing and then reading about other things.