Sep 28, 2017 - Sale 2455

Sale 2455 - Lot 199

Price Realized: $ 344
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 400 - $ 600
(NEW YORK CITY.) Scrapbook and commonplace book of literary figure Henry M. Western. Approximately 250 pages. Folio, original 1/4 calf, worn, disbound with boards present; contents variously worn. New York and vp, 1812-57
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Additional Details

Henry Membery Western (1797-1853) was a wealthy New York City lawyer with a literary bent; he also owned an estate called Dosoris in Glen Cove, Long Island. Highlights include 6 letters addressed to Western; a card reading 'The difference between an American and an African is only one letter and part of another. African / American'; Western's 14-page manuscript play, 'Malvina, or Fashionable Foibles,' dated 1820; and numerous original poems by Western, most signed with his pseudonym Hans Ry Werter.
Also laid down in the scrapbook is an engraving by Henry's father Thomas titled "Thomas Western's Plan of Defence." It depicts his proposed fortifications for New York in the War of 1812. We sold two other examples of this plan in our 27 April Americana auction, both also found among Henry Western's papers, and have traced no other copies; we believe these to be the only 3 copies extant. with–a binder of modern genealogical notes on the Western family.