Goldsmith's Natural History Abridged, 1846, Much Annotated! naive watercolors MA estate sale of artist

MA estate sale of artist Lois Gross Smiley (1925-2019)

Yet still there is something to say for the hat / And for woman own sake I must preach it / Which is - should a family be caught in the rain / Then the family can shelter beneath it

or other fruits of the season

And then this great waif of a woman with crossed arms and pointed feet

but good overall vintage condition

Goldsmith's Natural History Abridged, 1846, Much Annotated! naive watercolors MA estate sale of artistThis book has be through A LOT, with names of multiple users written on different pages, a few of which have come loose, and most of which remind us it is nearly 200 years old! But what a thing, its 427 pages not just filled with engravings of animals of all sorts, but also with child drawn pencil outlines of a handful of them and some hand written text, too, including the note early telling us to visit page 312, where we are told not once but twice