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- Letter Sheet
Letter Sheet, “Christmas Piece, Specimen of Handwriting.” Featurning Ann Thornton, the Female Sailor.
Ephemera
( n.d. (circa 1850)),
Folio sheet, 15 x 20 inches. b/w wood engravings.
Price: $1500
Letter sheets of this sort contained a blank central space, bordered by thematic illustrations, in which to display the owner’s fancy calligraphy. This one has not been filled in. The headpiece shows “An English Privateer Capturing a Frigate.” The smaller illustrations on the sides illustrate a sailor leaving his girl and then returning to her, then two illustrations of Ann Thornton dressed as a man aboard ship and “Ann Thornton the Female Sailor Travelling in America.” Anne Jane Thornton was a real person whose adventures either fed into, or helped form, the enduring Female Sailor theme. Passing as a sailor, she followed her lover from Ireland to New York, only to find he had recently died. She worked on several American and British ships as “Jim Thornton” before her true identity was discovered. Her story was a sensation and she quickly wrote a book. Ann Thornton died in 1877; this sheet probably dates from the 1850s. A few short tears along edges, not affecting image. Very good condition, and quite scarce. Color it up and frame it for only
