Prudence Wells's (Shelburne, MA) Lovely Early 19th Century Penmanship Notebook wwII with a deep lip

with a deep lip

with its name referring to the fabled Fountain of Youth said to have been located in Florida

Some nice crustiness to surfaces of the wood too

I'd say--and good in all sorts of contexts

and those mustached profiles do look rather French to me

Prudence Wells's (Shelburne, MA) Lovely Early 19th Century Penmanship Notebook wwII with a deep lipI made a trip to my favorite antiquarian book seller in Maine this week and scooped up a few old paper things, this early penmanship notebook, the work of a Prudence Wells of Shelburne, Massachusetts among them. (And I believe I've placed her, born in 1799, in Shelburne, Franklin, MA, married to a Thomas Nims in 1825, and living until to the age of 90 in Greenfield, MA.) Based on that, and its content, I believe this notebook dates to the late 1810s