Two Hand-Written Poetry Albums 1830’s - 1840’s. This lot consists of two handwritten poetry albums from the 1830’s and 1840’s. The first one is larger and has 21 manuscript pages of poetry written between 1832 and the 1840’s, and there are six hand-colored engravings, twelve black-and-white engravings, five original drawings, and a great certificate from Niagara Falls at the end which says the person whose name is on the certificate passed behind the “Falling Sheet of Water” at Horse-Shoe Falls in August, 1847. There are two Lord Byron poems probably transcribed from originals, so don’t get your hopes up. These were not done in Lord Byron’s hand, but are in the album, and one poem is labelled “Shakespeare” at the bottom, but we’re sure Will did not write this one either. The rest of the poems are written by the people who penned them to celebrate love, life, and death; these include titles like “The Wish” (about someone who is missing his wife), “The Morning Star”, “A Smile”, “My Past Life” and “A Student’s Love”, and the pencil drawings are delicate and beautiful. One drawing is titled “Bothwell Castle”, a medieval castle in Scotland, others are pastoral or lake and harbor scenes, and one is titled “Phoebe”, about Grandmamma West. The hand-colored pieces include a beautiful bird on a tree branch, a flower that just stands out - the colors jump at you; the title page is done in color, probably by the publisher, W. & H. Rock of London, also called “Rock” in the archives, and the piece de resistance is the Niagara Falls certificate. We found only four listed online from the 1840’s, so they are rare and hard to come by, and one from 1850 is larger and goes for $250. There are five removable cards with drawings on them, numerous blank pages, many of the poems are signed by the person who wrote them or penned them, and several of them are written inside embossed frames, almost like a framed picture or painting. The second album is smaller, with honey or orange-colored boards, and it is chock full of hand-written poetry. There are 61 manuscript pages of poetry, just about all the pages are filled with poetry, with no drawings or illustrations except for the title page, and the poems speak for themselves. The title page was done by J. C. Riker of New York, the book started off as a blank album and the poems run from 1832 to 1851, with most of them in the 1830’s. Three of the poems were labelled “Cambridge” and “Boston”, so we assume the rest were probably written in New England during that time period, They include titles like “The Broken Household” and “The Sailor Boys Parting”, a poem near the end is about heaven and the Sabbath bell, and one poem is hand-written on a separate sheet of paper and laid in in the front: it is titled “Original Sin” and reads “An original something you would wish me to write - but how shall I begin: For I fear I have nothing original in me Excepting Original Sin”. Anonymous, but well worth the read. The first album has dark boards with gilt decorations on the spine and gilt vines inside a gilt-fillet border with incised decorations on the front cover, wide gilt dentelles with lilac- colored endpapers that seem like silk moire, the colored title page says “Album” at the top and “W. & H. Rock London” at the bottom, the album measures 9 1/4 x 7 5/8 in. wide, and all the edges are gilt. The gilt on the covers is rubbed and faded, there are chips on some of the pages, but none affecting the text or writing, there is rubbing or wear along the edges of the spine and at the tips, there is light soiling and brown spots here and there, with occasional offset from the engravings, the page before the title page has paper loss, but not affecting any writing or poetry, and the binding is tight. The second album has a loose front cover - it is nearly detached - and there are gilt decorations and a gilt title on the spine, gilt-fillet borders on the covers, turquoise blue endpapers, the front blank flyleaf is inscribed “Sarah H. Foster from her uncle J. Livermore”, the title page has an engraving of three people in front of a tombstone, an urn in the background, and the top of the page reads “Album” and at the bottom “J. C. Riker New York” - we don't know anything about J. C. Riker. The album measures 7 3/4 x 6 1/4 in. wide and has chips on the spine, the gilt has faded, there is wear along the edges of the spine and at the tips, and there are occasional brown spots on the pages, but not much, and all the edges are gilt. The poems and manuscript pages are rather clean for an old ditty like this, and they give a glimpse into the way people thought and looked at life in the 1830’s and 40’s. As is. #245 #1685