From the library of Adeline Harris Sears
The Jonny-cake letters I-XII. Dedicated to the memory of Phillis, my grandfather's colored cook. By Shepard Tom
Providence: Sidney S. Rider, 1880. First separate and first collected edition; 12mo, pp. [4], 173, [1]; original printed gray wrappers; pages toned; very good copy contained in a quarter brown morocco slipcase, gilt-lettered spine. These letters originally appeared in the Newport Mercury and the Providence Journal during the years 1878-79. The letters were later continued to the number of twenty-six, but these were not separately issued. With the ownership signature at the top of the front wrapper of "Addie H. Sears." Adeline Harris Sears (1839-1931) was born in the small village of Arcadia, Washington County, R.I. where she was an autograph collector and quilt maker: "The practice of collecting autographs of famous people was very popular in the middle decades of the nineteenth century. Adeline's collection, however, was different. She asked the signers to write their names in ink on the small diamond-shaped pieces of white silk that she sent to them. After these diamonds were autographed, they were sent back to her; she then cut out more diamonds of brightly colored silks, pieced them together with the signed white ones, and created an all-silk bed quilt. In 1995 the Metropolitan Museum acquired Adeline's extraordinary quilt from her four great-grandchildren handmade quilt which is now a preserved treasure at The Metropolitan Museum Of Art" (findagrave.com). Hammett, p. 61. Item #56893
Price: $500.00
