(SCIENCE ENGINEERING) Atlantic Cable Album featuring a smal

Sale 2600 - Lot 218

Price Realized: $ 531

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

Estimate: $ 600 - $ 900

(SCIENCE & ENGINEERING.) "Atlantic Cable Album" featuring a small segment of the first transatlantic cable. 23 manuscript pages and 2 engravings. 4to, original gilt morocco with cable cross-section laid in, moderate wear, rebacked; one leaf detached, otherwise minor wear to contents. New York, 1858, with inscriptions through 1859

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Additional Details

Cyrus Field's first functioning transatlantic cable began transmitting messages in August 1858, and failed the following month. Almost immediately, fragments were cut up into souvenirs. The present album was first advertised in the New York Times on 9 October 1858 by its promoter Eugene Ely.

It is a standard commonplace book or friendship album of the period, with the addition of a 5/8-inch cross-section of the cable mounted in the middle of its front board, surrounded by the words "Atlantic Cable Album" and "Charm." The front board is considerably thicker than the rear to accommodate the cross-section. Ely's copyright notice, gilt-printed on black glossy stock, is mounted to the inner wrapper: "This Specimen of the Atlantic Cable guaranteed to be genuine by the Publisher."

The album was then used as a typical commonplace book of the era. It was presented in 1859 to William B. Hoyt of Ashtabula, OH for his work as superintendent of a Methodist Sunday school. Two religious engravings are bound in, in addition to 23 pages of manuscript inscriptions to Hoyt, 1859 and undated. No other examples of the Atlantic Cable Album have been traced at auction.