Scarce 1853 Merril's New Illuminated Alphabet Book finely carved or at the corner of

or at the corner of the desk

and a leaf of advertising

just left over from a tag attached

but maybe that's just me

with a bit of green as well

Scarce 1853 Merril's New Illuminated Alphabet Book finely carved or at the corner ofI sure do love alphabets, and happily they've manifested in so many excellent incarnations with unlikely survivors my favorite kind! This is an 1853 copy of Merrill's New Illuminated Alphabet Book, published by Rufus Merrill, Concord, NH, and which I think may have been the first edition, as I can find no earlier reference to it, though I have found later. Paper cover, with beautiful upper and lower case alphabets on the flip, and then each page