- 473
Clemens, Samuel L.
Estimate
3,500 - 5,000 USD
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Description
- paper and ink
A group of eight items relating to Clemens's inventions, including the Paige typesetting machine, Mark Twain's Scrap-Book and Mark Twain's Memory Builder:
Printed document, 2 leaves, Washington, United States Patent Office, 24 June 1873, "Improvement in Scrap-Books"; disbound, staple holes in margins, one short tear to bottom margin of text, minor corner loss to diagram. Red folding case. — Mark Twain's Perforated Interleaved Scrap Book. New York: Daniel Slote & Company, ca. 1877. 2 copies: (1) With 100 leaves. Original front wrapper and index bound in blue cloth and stamped in gilt, silver, and black ink on the upper cover, lower cover blocked in blind, spine lettered gilt. (2): 152 leaves; final leaf loose. Original front wrapper and index bound in red cloth blocked in blind, spine lettered gilt. — Autograph letter signed ("S.L.C.") on MCIntyre Coal Company stationery, Elimira, 4 September 1879, to Dan Slote, requesting him to send one half-dozen scrapbooks to a customs officer; soiled and spotted on second page. — Autograph letter signed ("S.L. Clemens"), 2 pages, 12 August 1886, to his London publisher Andrew Chatto, requesting the price of typesetting per 1,000 ems in newspapers and books, reporting the assembly of the Paige typesetter (to be finished in 1887); light soiling, trace of rusted paperclip on upper left corners. —Autograph letter signed ("S. L. Clemens"), one page, Hartford, 11 April 1889, to an unknown recipient, announcing the completion of the Paige typesetting machine; minor discoloration on bottom margin. — Autograph letter signed ("Mark") , 3 pages, Hartford, 29 November 1889, to Joseph T. Goodman, speaks of raising capital to build the typesetting machines, that the Herald wants to order 33 of them, and calculates the royalty returns on the patent. — Mark Twain's Memory-Builder. New York: Charles L. Webster, 1891. Two printed sheets pasted to a box-like board edged in brown cloth; lacks a box for storing pins used in playing the game. Blue cloth folding case.
Printed document, 2 leaves, Washington, United States Patent Office, 24 June 1873, "Improvement in Scrap-Books"; disbound, staple holes in margins, one short tear to bottom margin of text, minor corner loss to diagram. Red folding case. — Mark Twain's Perforated Interleaved Scrap Book. New York: Daniel Slote & Company, ca. 1877. 2 copies: (1) With 100 leaves. Original front wrapper and index bound in blue cloth and stamped in gilt, silver, and black ink on the upper cover, lower cover blocked in blind, spine lettered gilt. (2): 152 leaves; final leaf loose. Original front wrapper and index bound in red cloth blocked in blind, spine lettered gilt. — Autograph letter signed ("S.L.C.") on MCIntyre Coal Company stationery, Elimira, 4 September 1879, to Dan Slote, requesting him to send one half-dozen scrapbooks to a customs officer; soiled and spotted on second page. — Autograph letter signed ("S.L. Clemens"), 2 pages, 12 August 1886, to his London publisher Andrew Chatto, requesting the price of typesetting per 1,000 ems in newspapers and books, reporting the assembly of the Paige typesetter (to be finished in 1887); light soiling, trace of rusted paperclip on upper left corners. —Autograph letter signed ("S. L. Clemens"), one page, Hartford, 11 April 1889, to an unknown recipient, announcing the completion of the Paige typesetting machine; minor discoloration on bottom margin. — Autograph letter signed ("Mark") , 3 pages, Hartford, 29 November 1889, to Joseph T. Goodman, speaks of raising capital to build the typesetting machines, that the Herald wants to order 33 of them, and calculates the royalty returns on the patent. — Mark Twain's Memory-Builder. New York: Charles L. Webster, 1891. Two printed sheets pasted to a box-like board edged in brown cloth; lacks a box for storing pins used in playing the game. Blue cloth folding case.
Catalogue Note
Clemens the perennially failing entrepreneur. Of Clemens's many inventions, the Paige typesetter was his greatest financial failure which bankrupted him and forced him to take up the lecture circuit once more. The Memory-Builder was also a commercial disaster. The self- pasting Scrap-Book, on the other hand, brought him $50,000 in revenue.