Cash / Commonplace book of Laura Plummer

Leather backed marbled boards, 8vo, manuscript pagination to 120. Very Good with a half-inch loss to the heel of the spine, moderate rubbing to boards. Binding tight.

Originally used as a cash book, the earliest entries record job work in 1849—primarily carpentry and furniture making, buggy upholstery and repairs. Entries include "California [body & ironing?]” (75) another “filling Wheel Negro” (20). There are records identifying purchases in Evansville, Indiana from 1856, but most of the ephemera has Massachusetts origins, including receipts and unusual slip notifying of the dissolution of Boston firm George P. Baldwin & Co. Individuals named in the ledger include Giles Cohn (Cohin, etc), Edward B. Edwards, Moses Gilbert, Wilson Gibson and B. Perkins.

The family's narrative is unclear from the contents, but it is a particularly strong graphic piece and a little window into a man's business and a young girl's world. The scrap content was added in the 1870s. Several drawings and penmanship drills include the signature of "Laura J Plummer 10yrs." Her choices include cutout paper hearts, bright color lithographs produced for Rush's Sarsparilla, pictures of animals, and poems about them, too ("The Monkey," p.13). She's carefully folded in the oversize graphics to charming effect. Newspaper and literary clippings are laid in along with small print graphics from newspaper ads, and assorted ephemera including a gummed label and packing slip. An eclectic collection that serves as a multi-purpose period reference.