Apr 16, 2019 - Sale 2505

Sale 2505 - Lot 178

Price Realized: $ 552
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 800 - $ 1,200
(RHODE ISLAND.) Scrapbook of Providence-area political cartoons, clippings, and ephemera kept by Samuel A. Irons. 23-page index plus 116 scrapbook pages. Folio, original 1/2 calf, worn, with early tracing-paper wrappers; minor wear to contents. Vp, 1837-1905

Additional Details

Samuel Aldrich Irons (1826-1906) owed a large tannery in Providence, RI, residing just over the line in nearby Johnston for much of his life. He was active in local Democratic Party politics and served a few terms in the state legislature. This scrapbook contains a wide variety of personal and local ephemera: a mock certificate from the Merry Christmas & Happy New Year Co., 1885 His report card from Smithville Seminary, 1846 One of the countless reprints of the January 1800 Ulster County Gazette on the death of Washington A printed circular letter issued by opponents of the Dorr Rebellion, signed in type by James Fenner, John Brown Francis and many more, 4 March 1842 A satirical print titled "The Salt River Gazette--Extra, Wednesday, October 9, 1867" on the death of "The Great Negro Party" 18 printed Johnston election ballots, 1859-77 Satirical print titled "Ye 'Ass-ard and ye H'Ives Case!! A Hap-Hazard Song for the People," [1857] An unsigned lithograph titled "The Mill-Boy of the Slashes!" depicting Henry Clay whipping an enslaved woman Engraved seating chart for a "Complimentary Dinner by the patrons of the Revere House to the Proprietors," 1886 3 letters from the original owner of his tannery, Alfred Anthony & Co., 1837-59. Interspersed with these insertions are numerous clippings and manuscript notes on local history; train wrecks, construction projects, genealogy and more. A typical note reads "Aldana Lyon started omnibus line here April 25 1845--so says Andrew J. Kennedy."
We trace no other examples of at least one satirical print, headed "I Say, Jo, What's the Matter with Old Durham?" It depicts an obese suited bull complaining "O them clams, them clams, they never will digest!" It warns "Our Democratic flag is waving, the coon skin must now cover you." If you can explain the humor here, we would greatly appreciate it. The whole volume is a treasury of obscure and mysterious Rhode Islandiana.