1827
by (EARLY AMERICAN WOOD BLOCKS)
1827. (EARLY AMERICAN WOOD BLOCKS). Two wood blocks, 1820s, each containing the large device of the American Sunday School Union, accompanied by two ASSU books, 1827 and ca. 1827, each bearing one of the woodcuts on the title page. Four items, housed in a custom fitted clamshell box. Blocks in excellent condition, books worn at the cover extremities but very good. Founded in Philadelphia in 1824, the American Sunday School Union would go on to become the largest publisher of children's books in the nineteenth century. The organization's first device, used on the title pages of many of its earliest books, depicts a Peaceable Kingdom-like scene with several wild and domestic animals and a young boy sitting together under the rays of the sun. Atop the scene, within a curved ornamental background, are the words "Knowledge of the Lord." At the bottom, within a wavy banner, is "American Sunday School Union." Each cut is approximately 2 1/2 inches square. The first book is Anna Ross; A Story for Children (1827); the second book is The Improved Class-Book, for Sunday School Teachers' Minutes (n.d., but ca. 1827). Each contains the above device printed on the title page by the corresponding block. Ex coll. S. Robert Teitelman. (Inventory #: 15121)