This 1858 copy of American Text Book for Letters penmanship instruction book, published by N.S. Dearborn, Boston, has clearly done a lot of instructing—the covers are well worn, and the binding is pretty rough—but it’s a rare one, and an interesting one, with some beautiful alphabets (including Greek and Hebrew), a section on shorthand symbols, and lots more, including recipes for red, black, metallic and, best of all, deceptive (invisible!) inks! The original tissue/tracing paper facing each page is still mostly in place, so one could immediately get to work tracing over the letters.
72 numbered pages. The backside of each engraved page is blank. Plenty of toning, some foxing here and there, a few loose pages, and the text on some pages (not the alphabets) is somewhat light. But beautiful, and very instructive, and pretty fascinating. 8 3/8" x 5 3/16".
