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c. 1830 Printing Woodblock - PHILADELPHIA FIRE

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Colonial America

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Original Woodblock Printing Plate of Philadelphia on Fire
Appeared in the Philadelphia Newspaper "Spirit of the Times"

(1839), Original Woodblock Printing Plate of the Great Fire of Philadelphia, Choice Very Fine.
Fantastic view of the great fire at Philadelphia, which occurred on October 4-5, 1839, depicted on an original, dark-brown, 5" x 3" x 1/2" woodblock printing plate. Though unsigned, research has shown that this image appeared in the Philadelphia newspaper, "Spirit of the Times." The editor of that publication commented: "We reached the scene about 9 o'clock, this morning - drew a hasty picture of it, and by 12 o'clock, Johnson, the artist, had the representation ready for the press." The woodblock offered here is the very one which Mr. Johnson engraved in less than 3 hours. Not only is the image an exact, line for line, match with that published in the newspaper, the blemishes in the block also match perfectly, though over the past 150 years, some additional flaws have appeared. There is a large warp split to one of the edges, with a sliver of wood missing, otherwise this block is excellent in every regard. This printing block recalls the devastation wrought by urban fires before the advent of modern fire fighting methods. A wonderful historical artifact, rescued from obscurity.



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