You know I've got a weakness for early children's books, with this rare copy of Mother Goose's Melodies filled with charming engravings dating to the 1830s or so, but of course my even greater weakness if for how such books were personalized by the children who owned them--and this one has the hand of a young J.H Brown all over it! Mostly, he added tiny hats to people and animals, but toward the end he seems to have learned how to write, and so Miss Jane, who had had a bag with mice in it, is titled appropriately, and so is Tom Thumb, with Patty Cake to boot. Best of all to my eye is the brown paper cover with wide stitches at the binding and J.H. Brown of Maine written twice. Very charming.
5 3/8” x 4 7/8". 92 pages. Plenty of wear and scattered toning and stains all over and beginning at page 17 (I don't believe the earlier pages were ever bound under this cover) but in overall good condition, holding together very well and not fragile.
