Portraits. [Personalized Leather-Bound Civil War Era Sammelband of 157 Engraved Political Portraits from Various Mid-19th-Century Magazines (Sartain's, Graham's, Democratic Review, United States Review)]

Unpaginated, no date of publication or publisher noted, but circa 1870. Owner's name in gilt on front board ('C.A. Parker', for Cornelius A. Parker). A collection of engraved portraits, many engraved by the famous John Sartain, who pioneered the mezzotint engraving method. Also notable is the fact that, for most of the portraits, the name of the person pictured appears in a facsimile of their own hand beneath, and the previous owner has noted on some pages the dates of some of the individuals' deaths (the most recent of these we could find being 1867). Portraits were trimmed at margin edges when they were bound together - a pencil note remains (partially trimmed away) on the reverse corner of the first portrait stating 'make the picture.... in the middle of the le...' -- these were apparently instructions to the binder to trim the portraits such that the image was oriented in the center of the resulting leaf. Numerous statesmen, religious officials, and members of society pictured, including: Bishops of the M.E. Church; Chateaubriand; William Penn; Leigh Hunt; George R. Graham; James Fenimore Cooper; Mary & William Hewitt; Jenny Lind; Zachary Taylor; Winfield Scott; Joseph Warren; Nathaniel Greene; Andrew Jackson; James K. Polk; Mrs. Polk; Millard Fillmore; Frank Pierce; James Buchanan; Jefferson Davis; Samuel Colt. This would have been a useful reference for a member of society, a politician, or perhaps a merchant serving wealthy clients. The owner was either Cornelius Adams Parker, or Cornelius Arthur Parker, both of whom lived in Gouverneur in St. Lawrence County, New York.