[Revere, Paul, engraver]: [Thomas, Isaiah]:

$2,500 · Offered by William Reese Company · No longer available

[BOOKPLATE OF AMERICAN PATRIOT AND PRINTER-PUBLISHER ISAIAH THOMAS, LIKELY ENGRAVED BY PAUL REVERE]. A fine example of the second bookplate engraved by Paul Revere for his friend and fellow patriot, the printer-publisher Isaiah Thomas. This example is mounted on the verso of the general titlepage of part I of Mathew Carey's periodical, the American Museum, for the year 1792. The titlepage bears the institutional stamp of the American Antiquarian Society (AAS), founded in 1812 by Isaiah Thomas, whose initial gift of some 2,600 titles served as the cornerstone of the society's library, and Thomas continued to donate books to AAS until his death in 1831. "Isaiah Thomas (1749-1831) was a good friend of Revere's as well as a longtime business partner and Masonic brother. Like Revere, Thomas was of the mechanic class and a member of the Sons of Liberty. He received no formal education, but, again like Revere, he succeeded in his trade through his own initiative, eventually becoming one of the wealthiest men in the early republic. Thomas hired Revere to design an armorial bookplate, which he used frequently to identify his bound books and newspapers as his property. Thomas became an obsessive amasser of books and his collection forms the heart of the library he founded in 1812 - the American Antiquarian Society" - Hewes & Wolverton.The bookplate is in the Jacobean style and features a symmetrical cartouche surrounded by scrolls and swags. At center is a shaded cross featuring five c

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