Mod Sanctuary Antiques and Fine Art Gallery

SCARCE PORTE CRAYON (DAVID HUNTER STROTHER) (1857) HARPER & BROS., NEW YORK, 'VIRGINIA ILLUSTRATED,' (1ST EDITION) with LEATHER SPINE/MARBLED, MOTTLED ABSTRACT COLOR FRONT & BACK COVERS, CONTAINING a 'VISIT to THE VIRGINIAN CANAAN & THE ADVENTURES of PORTE CRAYON & HIS COUSINS,' with RAISED, RIBBED, GOLD GILT FILIGREE EMBOSSED LEATHER SPINE & CORNERS, LITERARY, 1ST PERSON VOLUME, with PROFUSE ILLUSTRATIONS of the ANTEBELLUM SOUTH & CITADEL of SLAVERY & of the CONFEDERACY, the COMMONWEALTH of VIRGINIA

[Illustrated from drawings by 'Porte Crayon'

(David Hunter Strother]

Harper & Bros., Pearl Street, Franklin Sq., NY (1857)

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year one thousand eight hundred & fifty-seven, by
Harper & Bros., in the Clerk's Office of the District
Court of the Southern District of New York
(Dated 1857)
Mid-19th century American antique illustrated literary volumes depicting the antebellum South of the United States before the outbreak of the US Civil War

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DIMENSIONS:

9 ¾" Height x 6 ¾" Width x 1 ⅝" Depth

Weight: 1 lb. 2.3 oz.

DESCRIPTION:

In this classic literary piece, which was later serialized in Harper's Weekly magazine during the 1850's, David Hunter Strother, also known as 'Porte Crayon,' engages in travel in his native, home state of antebellum Virginia, accompanied by his cousins and his carriage driver, named 'Mice.' The piece is wonderfully and rather extravagantly illustrated with Porte Crayon's own, original, highly detailed and artistically accomplished personal sketches. The profuse illustrations, often highly descriptive and quite poignant portrayals of pre-US Civil War Virginia, still in the throes of slavery and human bondage, depict with a kind of rare candidness and honesty, even if racially myopic and often suffering from a case of near-sightedness, the southern and soon to be, break-away and Confederate, antebellum rebel State of Virginia, before the outbreak of the national catastrophe, the US Civil War. This is a stark, often unseemly and insider's view of antebellum Virginia, where portrayals of Black Americans, who were clearly slaves, held in human bondage by white southerners and their unmitigated personal property, were actually not viewed as particularly racist, but rather topical, merely observational views of the antebellum South, where slavery was propagated and flourished, depicting it not so much as in crisis, but curiously in a state of perceived social and racial equilibrium and cultural harmony, where interestingly Black slaves seemed to accept their racial bondage and role as barely second-class citizens, and as the human property of other human beings. The author, with the literary pen name Porte Crayon, acting as the namesake for the author David Hunter Strother, travels with his three Southern belle female cousins, visiting caverns, spas, mountain peaks and valleys of the geographically and topographically diverse region of the United States which came to be known as the State of Virginia, at a time when roads, as they were called, were no more than often times, carriage wheel ruts carved into the compacted soil of unmarked rural ways, often in deplorable condition. David Hunter Crayon and his three female cousins visit many parts of the state, describing what amounted to a period adventure, filled with mishaps on the roads and nighttime accommodations, that were at best, less than luxurious, but often described no less as comfortable and homey. David Hunter Strother's literary depictions and especially his own personal sketches of the varied places and people of antebellum Virginia, are now widely viewed as classics. The volume has a wonderful, nearly undisturbed, raised, ribbed leather spine, with gold gilt, embossed decorative, stamped filigree. The leather hasn't been enhanced with any kind of sealer or moisturizer and has a naturally aged, dry, matte finish and natural leather patina, being now over 160 years old. The leather of the spine extends outward about 25% onto both the front and back cover. The front and back cover also are cornered with leather, making this mid-19th century American antique binding especially expensive at the time and particularly decorative in its design. The front and back covers are decorated with classic, period, multi-colored, mottled decorative abstract colors. Only some slight scuffing can be seen on the cover's front and back, located where the volume was repeatedly slid in and out of a bookcase against other stacked volumes or possibly repeatedly slid on the surface of a reading table or nightstand. Without interior page loss, significant tanning or foxing, this wonderful, period southern portrayal of the antebellum South, as seen through a white southerner's portrayal of the once seat of the Confederacy, antebellum Virginia, is a candid, bird's eye view if you will, of the once bastion of slavery and citadel of the Confederacy. The profuse illustrations, and portrayals of Black Americans are wonderful, if only for their contextual historical importance. A simply outstanding period volume from before the US Civil War. A simply terrific volume and cultural artifact from the antebellum South and State of Virginia. Wonderful.