Item #16553 A Mother’s Portrait: Sketched Soon After Her Decease, for the Study of Her Children, by Their Surviving Parent.
A Mother’s Portrait: Sketched Soon After Her Decease, for the Study of Her Children, by Their Surviving Parent.
A Mother’s Portrait: Sketched Soon After Her Decease, for the Study of Her Children, by Their Surviving Parent.

A Mother’s Portrait: Sketched Soon After Her Decease, for the Study of Her Children, by Their Surviving Parent.

London: Printed for Knight and Lacey, 1823. First edition. Engraved frontispiece. Binding extremities a bit rubbed, boards sligthtly soiled. Front hinge and rear joint cracked, but sound. 2.5” inches worn away from lower spine. A few chips and tears to spine label, with loss of a single letter. Light foxing, minor offsetting from frontispiece. Contemporary ink inscription on half-title. A very good cop. Original drab boards, printed paper spine label. Octavo. xi, [1, blank], 151, [1, blank], [2, index], [2, publisher’s ads] pp. Item #16553

We were unable to find any information about the author of the present work (or the names of his wife and children) with the resources that are available to us. In the author’s “Address,” he writes that A Mother’s Portrait is “not so much a narrative of the mother’s life, as a view of the qualities of her mind and the features of her character, which this little work is designed to present to her children, and to others who may deem it worth perusal. Still the author considers it likely to render the work more interesting, both to [his children] and to general readers, for him to portray her mind and character in connexion with those events of her history, which had the greatest influence among the means of generating her excellent principles and exemplary conduct” (p. 8). The “Mother” was attracted to Dissent early in her life, especially Methodism. Following his marriage, the author forms a union of “Independent Dissenters” and writes at length about the upstanding virtue of his wife, though expressing a slight vexation with her rather single-minded interest in Christianity.

OCLC lists two copies, one in the United States at the New York Public Library.

Price: $650.00