Upright Planes / Dialling: Early 1800s Notebook Page with Watercolor Diagrams in Double Sided Frame

Regular price $295.00

This is one of three double-sided pages from an early 19th c. Newburyport, MA  school notebook I'm listing--clearly the work of one person--which came from the collection of longtime New England collectors Bev and John Titus. I love early watercolored lettering and diagrams just about as much as anything in the world (and have also been kind of obsessed with sun dials lately) so swooned when I saw these.  Both I believe relate to the scientific basis of sun dials and their use, the "Dialling" side beginning: "Dialling [sic] is a very ancient art, even as old as Time of King Hezekia" (Judahite King Hezekia, B.C.E.27–698 BCE) and then proceeding to explain the positioning and reading of the dial. These geometries rendered in rich watercolors in the best palette, and precisely detailed in ink, combined with beautifully lettered headers above just totally do it for me. Knowing they were done in Newburyport, just a few miles from me, 200 years ago or so, is pretty nice too. 

Framed as found: 16 1/2 x 11 1/2 x ; sight: 12 1/2 x 7 1/2. The frames appear to have been custom made for these, not very long ago. The page is pretty much hermetically sealed inside the frame, between two panes of glass, with wooden plugs/pegs near the corners on the top edge of the frame. It appears to me one would need to drill down through those plugs in order to disassemble the frame should one wish to reframe them--certainly doable but just a note that the frames don't readily pull apart.