I was really excited to find this, purchased from a seller in New Hampshire, not far from where it was created close to two centuries ago, in the no longer extant town of Nashville, NH. The work of a Rebecca Pillsbury, inscribed on the front inside cover along with the date, it features fourteen neatly composed pages of ink-stamped leaves (sometime looking a lot like graphite rubbings, but I am pretty certain all pressed in ink), with each of the leaf specimens carefully labeled in graphite, in handwritten cursive. With brown hand-dyed/marbled paper covers, silk ribbon binding, and wove paper pages, each separated by a sheet of tissue, it feels like quite a special thing, and creates a wonderful portrait of time and place from a botanical perspective too. Four o'clock, Catnip, Columbine, Sweet William, Everlasting Pea, Gentlemen's Affection, Morning Glory, Hibiscus, Larkspur, on and on. Lovely, poetic, and while I come across a good number of herbarium and sea moss pressings, it's quite a rare day in my experience to come across an example like this.
Interestingly, Nashville, New Hampshire was a short lived town situated in present day Northern Nashua that seceded from Nashua in 1842 after a dispute over the location for the new town hall. The two towns later reunited in 1853. That puts this study right smack in the middle of a Nashville's short 11 year existence.
Book measures 9" x 7-1/4". 14 pages of samples, blank reverses, plus tissue paper pages separating each. Some samples are a bit bolder than others, as documented, which I think just makes the process of its making feel all the more palpable. Handwriting readable throughout. Overall very good condition, with a few small edge losses to the from cover paper, one spatting of dark spots on the first inside page (pictured at the end of photos) and a little rippling to the paper (very minor).
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