Honeywell, [Martha Ann] | Needle-work executed without hands

Honeywell, [Martha Ann]

Gallery of Cuttings and Needle-Work Executed Without Hands. [Poughkeepsie]: American Press, [ca. 1846]

Broadside (258 x 205 mm). Printed in an assortment of types within a decorative border; old folds, ink stains with a few ink burn spots, small marginal closed tears. Matted and hinged.

Born in Lempster, New Hampshire, in 1787 without hands, Miss Honeywell worked in the tradition of Mattias Buchinger: traveling around the United States and Europe making public appearances where she demonstrated her talents and sold her creations. The present broadside describes these demonstrations: "[Miss Honeywell] has acquired such extraordinary skill in the use of a common pair of Scissors, that by holding them in her mouth she is enabled to cut out of Paper the most curious and difficult designs ever attempted." 

PROVENANCE:

Exhibited: Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Wordplay: Matthias Buchinger’s Drawings from the Collection of Ricky Jay," January 8, 2016–April 11, 2016