"The Rose of Sharon a Religious Souvenir for MDCCCLIV", edited by C.M. Sawyer, published by A Tompkins & B.B. Mussey & Co. Boston, 1854.

Hard boards, embossed red morocco leather [a little wear, spine ends wear]; both boards are decorated with golden rose, gold decorated spine [the label of the binder Benjamin Bradley, Boston is inside back cover, 4.3/4" x 7.1/4"; gilt decorated endpapers [stamp of former owner inside front cover: see photo; name written on back of front endpaper]; frontispiece, engraved title page, second title page, 303 pages, gold page edges, 6 engraved plates, all plates are protected by tissue guards, some soiling and a little wear, very good condition.

An annual magazine containing various articles, stories, travelogues, and poetry by female writers. The contents of the "Rose of Sharon" represents an intellectual cultural movement defined in the US History as A Second Religious Awakening; illustrated with 6 engravings.

The red morocco leather binding was created by the American pioneer in embossed bookbinding, Benjamin Bradley, Boston. His label is attached inside back-cover. Bradly established himself in business in Boston in 1831, and in 1832, he produced the first embossed cloth binding in the United States. His first profitable work was the binding for "Six Months in a Convent", a bestseller of 1835. He bound all of the publications of Ticknor & Fields, and several other Boston publishers, and did a great deal of work for Appleton Company of New York.

The six plates were engraved by one of the American leading engravers, Hezekiah Wright Smith. He was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1828, and came to New York when he was five years old. He studied under Thomas Doney and was a very skilled engraver of portraits in line and stipple. He was an associate of Joseph Andrews in Boston in 1850 and in 1870-1877 found employment in New York. In 1877, Smith situated himself in Philadelphia, doing much of his work there. However, he left the city very suddenly in April of 1879 and was never heard from again. His noted plates are those of Daniel Webster, Edward Everett and a head of Washington from the Athenaeum head by Stuart. The head of Washington is reportedly the best engraving ever done from this portrait. [Reference: A Guide to Engravings in the Special Collections Research Center, Gelman Library]

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