THE AMERICAN PATRIOT'S, WAR SONG: OR AN APPEAL TO FREEMEN. [followed by 13 4-line stanzas, printed in two columns separated by an ornamental scroll, with a 4-line chorus and a footnote (“*Fort Malden, where the British pay / the savages for American Scalps”) at the end].

Boston: Printed by Nathaniel Coverly, Jun'r. Corner Theatre Alley, nd [ca.1812]. Broadside ballad, 10 ½ x 7 3/8 inches, 26.5 x 19 cm. (trimmed close to text), with two Patriotic relief cuts (each 3 1/8 x 1 ¾ inches), one an American Eagle with arrows clutched in his talons, the other a drum, flags, bayonets, and muskets, printed in the top margin. A patriotic War of 1812 ballad, exhorting the public to defend against the impressment of American seamen by the British, and railing against the trade in scalps, likely printed following Gen. William Hull’s August, 1812, surrender of Fort Detroit to the British force and their native American allies under Tecumseh attacking from Fort Malden. OCLC locates a single copy (American Antiquarian Society, bound in the Isaiah Thomas collection of broadside ballads, Vol. I, no. 122, presented to the society in August, 1814). Uniformly age-toned, but very good. Item #63669

Nathaniel Coverly, Jr., who had established his Boston printing business in 1811, began by concentrating on “broadsides for common readers, some reprinting older texts, but many with newly composed lyrics reflecting current events and local news. During his first few years in business, Coverly could afford to print only limited editions of inexpensive ephemeral broadsides with entertaining or topical texts that would sell quickly. He capitalized on American victories at sea and particularly on Boston’s pride, the Constitution.; sensational titles, breathless introductions with italics for emphasis, and catchy phrases characterize Coverly’s new work. [Noting Thomas’s purchase of a large group of unbound songs and ballads he intended to bind himself on an 1814 visit to Boston:] The purchase of more than three hundred ballad sheets was an important act, saving the evidence of Boston’s street literature printed in 1813. Since nearly half of the 334 sheets in the collection bear the imprint of Nathaniel Coverly, Jr., and another 120 were probably printed by him, it is likely that Thomas made his purchase at Coverly’s small shop on the corner of Milk Street and Theatre Alley, now Devonshire Street … He indeed preserved the material he wanted, but could not resist observing the poor quality of paper and presswork” (Kate Van Winkle Keller’s “Nathaniel Coverly and Son, Printers, 1767-1825,” AAS, 2008, pp. 211-252).

Price: $4,500.00