Illustrated Catalogue of Private Museum. Chas. Q. Eldredge, Old Mystic, Conn. Sixth Edition.
[N. p. n. p.], 1931. Sixth edition. 12mo (scant 7 x 5 inches), original printed pictorial wrappers, 132 pages. With numerous inserted plates (included in the pagination), illus. Coated wrappers somewhat soiled and sunned, with the spine a bit chipped (with loss); light damp-staining, with some light mustiness; in good to very good condition. Item #21570
“This is the sixth catalogue that has been made and while with its index showing eighteen classifications and its Appendix with over three hundred new things it endeavors to give a good idea of what the museum contains, it does not assume to give the names of the more than seven thousand items.” An extensive and idiosyncratic catalog of a private cabinet of curiosities (its inventory much expanded over the 3000 or so items reported in the first catalog of 1919), short descriptions of myriad exemplary curious from Eldredge’s extensive collection—ranging from “Rope. Used to hang Dr. David W. Wright in Norfolk, Va., Sept., 1862,” to “Photograph. Of Myron Moore, now a captain on the Great Lakes, who, when he was seven years old in 1873 was badly wounded by a trout that jumped from the waters of Lake Kevka, N. Y., over the side of the boat and seized him by the nose,” to “The Crooked Stick. From Riverview Park. 1880.” The museum boasts an assortment of material high and low (and in between), from botanical specimens, to fossils, autographs, curious books and even a taxicab donated in 1930, “Supposed to be a birthday present from some unknown friend to mark my 85th birthday.” Includes views of Elderedge’s trim museum, which the author built himself “in his seventy-second year.” Eldredge notes the museum is open to the public without charge. A presentation copy inscribed by Eldredge in ink on the front wrapper to Ernest F. Gates, New London, Conn., Jan. 28, 1933. OCLC notes scattered locations of various editions.
Price: $200.00