An Act to Incorporate the Rhode Island Coal Company, February, 1809.
Boston: Printed by John Eliot, Jun. 1809. First edition. Original marbled wrappers, 6.31 x 4.06 inches, 24 pages, stitched. Small bit of the lower corner of the front wrapper missing; some light wear and toning; a very good copy. Item #19896
An attractive pamphlet, perhaps intended to suggest possibilities for investment, for one of the earliest Rhode Island Coal companies. (The Aquidneck Coal Company was incorporated the same year.) The Rhode Island Coal Company was granted a lottery concession in 1812 in an attempt to raise capital, and seems to have provided fuel for the industrialization of the region. (The poor reputation for Rhode Island coal was such that as George S. Ashley notes in a 1915 USGS report on Rhode Island coal, “it is contended in the final great conflagration Rhode Island coal will be the last thing to take fire.”) Rink 3410; American Imprints 18512.
Price: $150.00