Ballou's Pictorial Drawing-Room Companion, August 4, 1855. Chantrey's Statue of Washington; "The Ducal Coronet"; East India Silk Worm; Fresco Painting in the Capitol; Catacombs of Paris; St. John's, New Brunswick; New South Wales; The Sculptor of Verona; Melbourne; Sea of Azoff; Squaw Rock at Squantum; Muscatine, Iowa; Fort Snelling, Minnesota; Braille; An Italian Ramble; War of 1812; "The Unmeant Rebuke"; Boston; Cambridge; Madeira

Boston: Ballou, M.M., 1855. First Edition . Self-wraps [newspaper]. Very Good. Elephant Folio - over 15" - 23" tall. From Engravings. Boston: M.M. Ballou, 1855. First Edition [newspaper]. The August 4, 1855 issue, Volume IX, No. 5, Whole No. 213. Numerous illustrations from engravings. Elephant folio size, sewn newsprint wraps, 16 pp. A strong Very Good Plus; other than modest occasional darkening to places on the covers (see scans), hardly anything to point to here. One of the highest grade copies I have. Maturin Ballou's paper was quite supple, not at all fragile, and it shows. Sharp, healthy, well-preserved. This issue contains stories, articles, and / or the diverse and now somewhat legendary engravings - as follows: Chantrey's Statue of Washington (with large engraving); the continuation (at chapter 10) of "The Ducal Coronet: The Heir and the Usurper/ A Romance of Italy in the 16th Century" by Arthur Morton; "An Indian Legend", by Mrs. M.E. Robinson; The East India Silk Worm. Bombyx Cynthia (with a large engraving); Fresco Painting in the Capitol; A Visit to the Catacombs of Paris; St. John's, New Brunswick (with engraving); Inhabitants of New South Wales, Australia (with engraving); "Catherine to Heathcliff", a poem by S.L. Spencer; "The Sculptor of Verona", by Harriet A. Davison; Train & Co.'s Warehouse in Melbourne, Australia (with engraving); Sea of Azoff; Squaw Rock, at Squantum, Massachusetts (with engraving); Muscatine, Iowa (with engraving); Fort Snelling, Minnesota (with engraving); Printing for the Blind; An Italian Ramble; A Reminiscence of the Last War, by Giddings H. Ballou; "The Unmeant Rebuke. A Life Lesson" by Sylvanus Cobb, Jr.; Club House, West Street, Boston (with engraving); Spy Pond and Taft's Hotel, Cambridge (with engraving); Madeira (two engravings, rear cover); and a number of short editorials, news pieces, poems, and ads. Maturin Ballou's 16-page newsprint periodical was already a piece of American history when he, as managing editor of Gleason's Pictorial, bought that - the first successful illustrated weekly newspaper in America - from owner Frederick Gleason in 1855. An early issue under this name. lLng1