Apr 27, 2017 - Sale 2444

Sale 2444 - Lot 209

Price Realized: $ 812
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,200 - $ 1,800
(MARITIME.) Sailmaker's manuscript pattern book. [4], 233 pages (mostly blank on the left-facing pages). Folio (21 x 14 inches), original heavy cloth, worn but sturdy; minor wear and browning to contents; 2 photographs and color newspaper clipping mounted on flyleaf, several leaves of notes laid in. [Perth Amboy, NJ?], 1899-1949 (bulk 1899-1915)
Set Alert for Similar Items

Additional Details

This volume includes hundreds of schematic drawings for custom sails made for commercial and pleasure ships, with measurements along each side. Many of the designs give the date, ship, captain, owner, town, and/or price for the work. The first 201 pages are all in the same tidy cursive hand, and dated through 1927. The last 30 pages are in a rougher all-capital hand, and are dated from 1931 to 1949.
We don't have firm evidence for the identity of this sailmaker, or where he was located. However, the large majority of the named customers are along the harbor from Staten Island, NY to Monmouth County, NJ. Some of the customers from the city of Perth Amboy, NJ have their addresses given simply as "City" or "PA" (see pages 151, 167 and 205, for example), which suggests that as a very likely location for the sailmaker. The Perth Amboy directories only list one sailmaker active from 1903 to 1919, Charles O. Munson. Henry E. Horton appears as a sailmaker at the same 423 Front Street location from 1940 to 1949; he may have done the later entries in this book.