Wonderful (and Long!) 1840 Letter from Elias A Brown To "My Dear Wife," with Beautiful Cross Writing J.T. Swartzenberg and two buttons down the

and two buttons down the front gives this old stocking doll a whole lot of personality--he really called to me from across the room

then one great book plate after another for the second half

There is a what looks a bit like a repaired hairline crack that runs across a couple of the fingers but it is not a repair

I especially love the sort of X created at the bottom by one boy in a back bend and the other with body suspended in an arch from the beams above him

1 1/2" across at base

Wonderful (and Long!) 1840 Letter from Elias A Brown To "My Dear Wife," with Beautiful Cross Writing J.T. Swartzenberg and two buttons down theI have for a long time wanted to turn up a good example of cross writing, shown here on the first page of this letter, brilliantly (and beautifully!) used in the early mid 19th century as a way of conserving space and paper. I just love to look at it! But happily this is a pretty wonderful and notable letter, too, written from Elias A Brown to his dear wife Louisa Anna (Cady) Brown in Minaville, Montgomery County, NY, 1840. There is a good bit about