On the back of this ink drawing--of a lovely bird in tree with leafy branch in its beak and another tree at its tail; plume below and poem below that--is a note that it was done by an Uncle Erson (?) Putney, c. 1812. I found it at an estate sale in Lunenberg, MA, which also included a fabulous collection of early mochaware (I coveted), the forget-me-nots I've listed, and some other wonderful antiques. I'll never resist an early ink drawing of a bird if I can help it--and such wonderful finely drawn details on this one--including those marvelous feet!
The poem reads:
Hail lovely art whose beauties shine / and grace the open man's every line / Be thou the pride of every youth / Attached to virtue and to truth.
Framed, as found: 10 15/16" x 9". Paper" 8 7/8" x 7". Small loss to lower right corner of paper and black ink stains to the paper along upper left and lower right edge. Ink has certainly faded some over the past 200+ years, but still clear and lovely, and poem is readable with just a little effort.
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