116

Printed at the Liberty-Pole, Boston.

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles Start Price:87.00 USD Estimated At:175.00 - 250.00 USD
Printed at the Liberty-Pole, Boston.
Superlatively rare broadside containing ballad, "On the Death of Polly Goold" - one of the most popular elegies in young America. An overly obsequious eighteen-stanza ode to mortality of a young woman, attributed to Ezekiel Russel(l), printed at "'Rus]sel's Office, Liberty-Pole" (Boston), between 1781-1796. 7 1/2 x 12 1/2. Based on a woman of Weare, N.H. (see following lot), her woeful story became an evangelical hymn; music was even composed for its text by a Vermont singing master of the era. "Remember this ye mourning friends, Your loss is her eternal gain; With her all sin and sorrow end...." In heavily worn condition, evidently the long-read lesson of a schoolchild, backed with manuscript sheet c. 1840 on which they have practiced penning repeatedly "Design implies intelligence..." and "He that would think...." Much fold wear, broken but not separated at two perpendicular folds, with loss of about a quarter of large woodcut known to show a kneeling woman with a book; some bookworming, frayed at bottom, with loss of first words of imprint, uniform mocha toning - but still collectible and a rarity: WorldCat locates only a single example of this Liberty-Pole printing (at New-York Historical Society).