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THBMechanic Library NEW-HAVEN, Copper-Plate Engraved Bookplate by Amos Doolittle
Lot 82
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Early American History Auctions
1520 Commerce St., #312
Winchester, VA 22601
United States
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About Auction
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By Early American History Auctions
Dec 20, 2025
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2025-12-20 12:00:00
2025-12-20 12:00:00
America/New_York
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Bidsquare : Early American History Auctions - December 20, 2025
https://www.bidsquare.com/auctions/early-american-history-auctions/early-american-history-auctions---december-20-2025-21473
199 Lots of Rare, Historic Autographs, Americana, Civil War Era, George Washington, Revolutionary War Era, Colonial America, Federal Period, War of 1812, Historic Maps & more. Early American History Auctions auctions@earlyamerican.com
199 Lots of Rare, Historic Autographs, Americana, Civil War Era, George Washington, Revolutionary War Era, Colonial America, Federal Period, War of 1812, Historic Maps & more. Early American History Auctions auctions@earlyamerican.com
View Full Catalog (199)
- Lot Description
Post Revolution
"Mechanic Library NEW-HAVEN" Scarce Amos Doolittle Engraved Bookplate, a.k.a. The Paul Revere of Connecticut
c. 1800, Original "Mechanic Library NEW-HAVEN" Amos Doolittle Copper-Plate Engraved Bookplate (a.k.a. "The Paul Revere of Connecticut"), Published by "Doolittle del et Sculpt", (New Haven, CT), Fine. Rare: only two institutional examples known, at Colonial Williamsburg, and Yale; the Virginia Museum Fine Arts holds an example of the earlier bookplate. Provenance: inscribed with the numbers "725" (presumably the catalogue reference number for the original Mechanic Library book).
One of two known bookplates designed by Doolittle for the Mechanic Library Society in New-Haven. This scarce Bookplate that bears the engraved Imprint of AMOS DOOLITTLE (1754-1832), Engraver and Silversmith, also known as "The Paul Revere of Connecticut". His engravings included portraits and maps, made in his New Haven, CT studio. He became famous for his four engravings depicting the Battle of Lexington and Concord, which were based on his first-hand reconnaissance of the battlefield, and which were first advertised for sale in the December 1775 Connecticut Journal. Doolittle engraved this bookplate for the Mechanic Library in New Haven. Its design features two Cherubs hammering on a blacksmith's anvil with "IMPROVE THE MOMENT" in a banner above them, and with a stack of books emanating rays at top, having clipped corners and slightly trimmed at top with a large margin at bottom, well printed with light tone, being similar to another example.
We ship what we sell.
"Improve the Moment" (motto of the Mechanic Library Society) Engraved bookplate, trimmed to within the plate mark, not affecting the image. One of two known bookplates designed by Doolittle for the Mechanic Library Society in New-Haven.
The image was also printed as a woodcut in advertisements for the Society. It features a gently ironic vignette of two quite buff, and yet winged cherubs, beating out metal across a large anvil. Their faces are well-defined, and may therefore be actual portraits of well-known "mechanics" (or more appropriately "mechanicals"), who were in this case natural philosophers and amateur scientists, rather than manual labourers.
The Society was preceded by the New Haven Young Men's Institute, which changed its name to the Mechanic Library Society in 1793, when it described itself as: "a public library in the city of New Haven", although it was for the use of subscribers only. In 1801, it published its 'Constitution and bye-laws. with a catalogue of books', suggesting that this bookplate was prepared in advance of that.
A native of Cheshire Connecticut, where he lived his entire life, Amos Doolittle (1754-1832) was apprenticed as a young man to silversmith Eliakim Hitchcock, also of Cheshire. He is best known as an early American engraver of maps: those in Jedidiah Morse's 'Geography Made Easy' (1784), the first American geography, are his earliest. However, they were preceded by a famous series of engravings of 'The Battles of Lexington and Concord', New Haven, December 1775.
Doolittle participated in the fight, but the engravings are after drawings by Ralph Earle. They remain the only pictorial record, by a contemporary American, of these important revolutionary battles.
Doolittle became a versatile engraver, and in addition to maps he created political cartoons, invitations, bank notes, labels, music, bookplates, diplomas, certificates, tickets, Masonic aprons and ephemera, charts, book and magazine illustrations, religious and moralizing prints, portraits, and historic scenes; and was also known as a printer and publisher, a "jeweler, a calico printer, and an engraver of clock faces" (Steinway).
Rare: only Two Institutional Examples Known, at Colonial Williamsburg, and Yale; the Virginia Museum Fine Arts holds an example of the earlier bookplate. Provenance: inscribed with the numbers "725" (presumably the catalogue reference number for the original Mechanic Library book).
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