Oct 10, 2013 - Sale 2324

Sale 2324 - Lot 50

Price Realized: $ 5,500
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 2,000 - $ 3,000
WITH NUMEROUS MANUSCRIPT DIARY ENTRIES BY A BOSTON RESIDENT (AMERICAN REVOLUTION.) West, Benjamin. Bickerstaff's Boston Almanack, for the Year of our Redemption, 1778. Woodcut cover portraits of Generals Washington and Gates, 12 additional illustrations heading the monthly almanac pages. [24] pages, interleaved with 7 manuscript leaves. 12mo, stitched; moderate soiling to title page, minor dampstaining, a few manuscript notes in margins, edge wear with slight text loss on final leaf. Danvers, MA: E. Russell, [1777]

Additional Details

"A very early, if not the first, attempt to depict Washington in the medium of the woodcut"--Hamilton 82. While the Gates portrait bears some resemblance to other known portraits, the source material for the Washington portrait is unknown. Printed among the usual almanac frivolities is a patriotic poem, "A Farewell to Boston, or a Few Scattered Thoughts by a Young Lady on her Embarking on Board the Ship Symmetry, December 8, 1775, in Order to Quit that Capital." Cresswell 209; Drake 3274; Evans 15705.
Interleaved with the almanac are dozens of manuscript memoranda and diary entries. The author is unknown, but he describes several Boston events: the smallpox inoculation; General John Burgoyne's passage through Boston en route to his parole in England; visits from Generals Lafayette and Gates; and the return of the USS General Gates from a successful cruise. Further afield was a report on the Battle of Rhode Island ("our army retreated in good order from Rhoad Island & brought off all their artillery baggage &c"). The longest entry was apparently transcribed from a newspaper account, describing the arrival of d'Estaing's French fleet in Boston on 20 July, and adding the related resolution of the Continental Congress to provide support troops. The author was apparently involved in one of Boston's churches; one page lists several payments of pew tax, a vestry meeting is noted in a page margin, while another page notes "24 of May the North Church was opened by Mr. Parker."