Please Help Identify a Symbol
RKKay
Posts: 3,017 ✭✭✭
I am transcribing some documents and have come across a symbol that I cannot identify. Here it is:
Can anyone identify it? Here is how the sentence reads: "the execution of a die [symbol] belongs to the engraver in every case, but the design does not, unless made by or originating with him."
Thanks in advance for your help.
Can anyone identify it? Here is how the sentence reads: "the execution of a die [symbol] belongs to the engraver in every case, but the design does not, unless made by or originating with him."
Thanks in advance for your help.
0
Comments
This is just a guess on my part, but it could be "i.e.", which
is sometimes confused with "e.g.", whereas the former
stands for "that is", and the latter means "for example".
I don't know, just a guess.
~
"America suffers today from too much pluribus and not enough unum.".....Arthur Schlesinger Jr.
Loving Care.
- Marcus Tullius Cicero, 106-43 BC
<< <i>This is just a guess on my part, but it could be "i.e.", which
is sometimes confused with "e.g.", whereas the former
stands for "that is", and the latter means "for example".
I don't know, just a guess.
~ >>
It was written 8-21-1857. The best I can do:
Specializing in 1854 and 1855 large FE patterns
<
That fits with the context of the sentence, too:
... execution of a die, (etc.)...
It being an old-school abbreviation for "etcetera" also explains why it has a period after it, despite being in the middle of a sentence.
Edit to add- OK, so maybe you've tripped over an obsolete abbreviation, but I gotta say that person had really nice and clear penmanship, which has to make your transcription task much easier!
Look at an old newspaper ad from the late 18th or early 19th century, sometime, where a merchant is offering a series of goods for sale, like, for example:
"fine china, clay pipes, muslin cloth, & c."
You'll see it used fairly often.
"I think it's "&c.", which is the old fashioned way of abbreviating "et cetera"."
-----
Yup!! I believe you've nailed it, LM!!
~
"America suffers today from too much pluribus and not enough unum.".....Arthur Schlesinger Jr.
Specializing in 1854 and 1855 large FE patterns
<
That little flourish after the closing doesn't look at all like "&c", though I'm fairly confident it is in the first inscription you posted.
And "very respectfully yours &c" doesn't make any sense.
Looks like an L, but you can see from the L in his name that it isn't.
That's what I get for feeling smug about attributing the first one, I suppose- I'm clueless on the second one you just posted.
My vote on that one is it's just a flourish of some kind.
In the 18th century they were more elaborate when certain founding fathers wielded the pen, but it looks like Longacre just made a small, modest doodle there at the end?
Which looks suspiciously like his initial L. Hmm.
Eh. I'm afraid I dunno on that one.
Famous flourishing:
Mr. Longacre just had a curious way of writing it, I suppose.
The "&c" at the end (if that's what it is) certainly looks lazier than the one in the body of the letter.
I still say he had nice penmanship, though. Except for his &c symbols.
I'd love to see his "slanting 5's" of large cent fame in his handwriting.
In my own family's letters from before 1900, I have seen such things as:
"With much gratitude and appreciation etc.,"
or: "Kindest regards &c."
The idea is that the writer is offering multiple good wishes and compliments that are too numerous to list.
Sunnywood
Sunnywood's Rainbow-Toned Morgans (Retired)
Sunnywood's Barber Quarters (Retired)
<< <i>Straying off topic a bit but staying on Longacre: it's too bad this letter wasn't dated two years earlier. Do you have any from 1855?
I'd love to see his "slanting 5's" of large cent fame in his handwriting. >>
Thanks Barry and Lord. Lord: unfortunately, I have not come across any documents from 1855 as of yet, which is a bummer, as the latter half of 1854 and all 1855 are the meat of my research. When I come across 1855, I will send you a PM, though it may be weeks or longer. For the time being, you'll have to live with this one from June of 1857:
Just as a teaser, I will transcribe the first sentence for you here. "That the head of Columbus should appear as a device on the obverse of the New Cent: is entitled to consideration."
Edited to add: thanks Sunnywood.
Specializing in 1854 and 1855 large FE patterns
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Specializing in 1854 and 1855 large FE patterns
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