A Calendar of Happy Days

Salem, Massachusetts: Privately Printed at the Sign of the Witch, 1896. Quarto, hand illustrated front cover titled "A Calendar of Happy Days," containing 103 leaves containing hand drawn text and illustration to rectos, bound with green ribbon. A wonderful homemade illustrated book created by an unknown woman hailing from Salem, Massachusetts, bearing the handwritten imprint "Privately Printed at the Sign of the Witch." The contents consist of original poems themed for each month of the year, accompanied by original color illustrations executed in pen, ink and watercolor. The book provides a glimpse into the happy, season by season doings of a well to do woman in coastal Essex County, Massachusetts. One poem provides an account of a trip "to the city to buy me a gown...up and down in the ships I went wand'ring about/Till by poor little pocket book turned inside out." Another poem relates to a ladies' whist club to which the author belonged, calling themselves the "S.S.S." Other contents relate to yachting along the coast, the Eastern Yacht Club, the Essex County Club, the Old Pickering House in Salem, the seasons, holidays, elections (including President McKinley and the mayor of Salem), and more. Two of the illustrations are after popular artists of the period--Charles Dana Gibson and Edwin Austin Abbey. A "Gibson Girl" aesthetic pervades the book, which includes an illustration of, and a poetic ode to, the Gibson Girl: "O the Gibson girl is a wonderful thing/...She is constantly floating before my mind's eye/I look for her now as the people pass by/I think she has stolen my heart shouldn't you/For I love her so well that I dream of her too." An exquisite late 19th century manuscript by an artistic New England woman. Disbound, with many pages detached from ribbons, ribbons detaching, chipping along margins, damp staining to some pages, chipping, staining and foxing to front cover. Item #13024

Price: $2,500.00