Ballou's Pictorial Drawing-Room Companion, August 25, 1855. 16 Engravings. Connecticut, Trieste, Nathan Richardson, Mexico City, Jacksonville, IL, Round Hill Water Cure Institution (Northampton, MA), Lexington, KY, Vicksburg, MS, New York Idiots Asylum (Syracuse), Thomas De Quincey, Valparaiso, Toronto, Steamer Baltic

Boston: Ballou, M.M., 1855. First Edition . Soft cover. Very Good. Elephant Folio - over 15" - 23" tall. From Engravings. Very Good. Boston: M.M. Ballou, 1855. The August 25, 1855 issue, Volume IX, No.8, Whole No. 216, of Ballou's Pictorial Drawing-Room Companion. Sixteen illustrations from engravings. Expansive Elephant folio size, sewn newsprint wraps, 16 pp. Very Good, the inevitable moderate age-toning and a light front-page stain being the only notable flaw. Moderate internal foxing spots, not heavy. Less edge wear than is typical. See scans. A sturdy example. 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. Here, there are 16 sizable engravings, most of these associated with articles or stories. They include the Boston Harbor masthead, a large State of Connecticut scene with the state escutcheon, three illustrations of an piece on Trieste, Italy, a portrait of Nathan Richardson with a long article on him, an engraving of the Grand Plaza of Mexico City, the Deaf and Dumb Asylum in Jacksonville, Illinois, the Round Hill Water Cure Institution in Northampton, Massachusetts, the New Clay Monument in Lexington, KY, a view of Vicksburg, Mississippi from across the river (all with accompanying text), a portrait of Thomas De Quincey with a short bio on him, the New York Asylum For Idiots in Syracuse with article, the water wheel at Valparaiso with text, the Merchants' Exchange in Toronto, Canada and the U.S. Steamer Baltic, both with text. Most of the non-fiction articles relate to these illustrations, and there always a few that have no illustration. Several of this periodical's typical short stories and serialized fiction are always within, as well, and the issue is spiced with a few poems, news shorts, and classified ads (occasionally illustrated with engravings themselves). 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. This issue is thus a fairly early one, under Ballou's editorship and his management. See scans. LLng3