Viva La Plume! Rhoda Goodrich's Early 19th Century Red and Black Ink Penmanship Sampler hand-painted object Too pretty to resist

Too pretty to resist

I've got a special weakness for paintings of apples

the rest of the stitching is holding together pretty well

galloping across the blank wall of the cell

Viva La Plume! Rhoda Goodrich's Early 19th Century Red and Black Ink Penmanship Sampler hand-painted object Too pretty to resistPhotos don't do much justice to this one a fight with glare and so not especially well lit when I was shooting it but hopefully details give a decent sense. Found in Pennsylvania this summer, it is a very early 1800s penmanship exercise, executed across a two page laid paper folio, in a roughly period frame, as found. And I must say the Viva La Plume in red inked fraktur lettering at top pretty much sold me right away! Then two main passages,