Lot 1149
James M. Tripp (American, 19th c.), "A Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, 1881", calligraphic drawing in ink on paper, signed twice at left center and lower right, with presentation inscription at center, sight 19 1/2 in. x 26 in, in a period walnut frame. E1000-1500 Provenance: Mr. and Mrs. Lawton, 1881 (per artist's dedication). Note A gigantic example of fancy High Victorian calligraphy, this exceptional greeting (as a presentation sheet, clearly intended for framing) was "Executed with a steel pen" by a penmanship expert named James M. Tripp. One person of that name is said to have been born in 1817 near Royalton, NY; another-or possibly the same, with a lifetime of 80 years?-died as a Trustee of Ohio University in 1897. As a probable artistic amateur (thus accounting for his omission from the usual indices of painters or draftsmen), Tripp may well have been a learned man: the main words of this large greeting are fashioned as "yule logs", quill pens are prominently displayed, the poetic citations may perhaps be his own, and the "two turtle-doves" of a classic English carol provide the principal figural imagery.
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