(MASSACHUSETTS) The Town of Boston Where Seth Hudson and Jos

Sale 2253 - Lot 214

Price Realized: $ 6,720

?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price

Estimate: $ 4,000 - $ 6,000

AN UNRECORDED ILLUSTRATED CRIME BROADSIDE (MASSACHUSETTS.) The Town of Boston, Where Seth Hudson and Joshua How were . . . Set in the Pillory One Hour, to be Whip'd Twenty Stripes / H--ds--n's Speech from the Pillory. Letterpress broadside illustrated with two woodcuts, 8 1/2 x 13 inches; minor wear. [Boston, 1762?]

Set Alert for Similar Items

Additional Details

An unrecorded early American broadside, illustrated and with interesting content. Frankly, we are baffled as to who produced this print, or why it was produced. It seems to be a description or prospectus of another scarce Boston print, "H--ds--n's Speech from the Pillory," by Nathaniel Hurd, relating to a sensational 1762 Boston trial, in which counterfeiters Seth Hudson and Joshua Howe were sentenced to the pillory. The source print featured a woodcut caricature of Hudson and a satirical poem. The present print includes the poem, omits the caricature, but adds two unrelated woodcuts, some caption text, and a detailed description of the original print. Printed in the center, for example, is the text "In the Centre of the Print (as express'd), the true Profile of the notorious Dr. Seth Hudson." All of the witty dialogue balloons from the source print are transcribed as well.
The print incorporates two older woodcuts, largely irrelevant to the subject matter at hand. At the top is James Turner's view of Boston, which had first appeared in the American Magazine of January 1744 (Reps, Plans and Views of Colonial Boston, pages 43-45). The other is a quite worn smaller cut of a seated man speaking to two children, which we have not identified.
For the source print which this refers to, see Evans 9144 and particularly Ford's Massachusetts Broadsides 1268; it is reproduced in Dow's Every Day Life in the Massachusetts Bay Colony and elsewhere. The present print is not found in Evans, ESTC, Ford, or elsewhere.