Prine, Peter:

$6,000 · Offered by William Reese Company · No longer available

[MANUSCRIPT ACCOUNT BOOK KEPT BY ACCOMPLISHED NEW YORK CABINETMAKER PETER PRINE]. A rare survival documenting early 19th-century American craftsmanship, this is the account book of successful upstate New York cabinetmaker Peter Prine, kept over a period of nearly thirty years. Prine's account book, noted as "Peter Prine His Book April the 25th 1826" on the first page, has a mix of journal and ledger entries, billing customers for a voluminous amount of furniture and other wood products, including dining and breakfast tables, clock cases, maple French bedsteads, mahogany bookcases and bureaus, coffins, and much more, interspersed with his personal purchases and material received in barter. There is also a recipe for varnish on one page. Though the bulk of Prine's work concerns finished products such as tables and coffins, he also records work such as planing wood, forming mills, and other various carpentry projects. Notable additions to the standard account content are two illustrations: an ink diagram titled "Directions for a Loom or a Half Loom," and a diagram for a cabinet with measurements on the rear pastedown.The journal-type entries herein are more detailed "running accounts" organized by the person Prine bought from, sold to, or worked for over the course of his life. Besides his carpentry work, Prine seems to have sold various crops from his farm, including buckwheat, peaches, corn, and more. The vast majority of the entries in the account book emanate from before 184

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