Description:

Barnum Phineas

P.T. Barnum signed historic Belle Haven Hotel's Guest Register with 60 attractive adverstising Broadsides, 1876

 

Large hotel register book, 10.5" x 16", decorated in black cloth with a brown leather quarter spine and leather corner tips. Leather with gilt tooled décor, with titles to spine of "Register", and "Belle Haven Hotel". Marbleized paper paste down end papers. The first page.  Leather spine is chipped and partly detached. Binding is loose, with several pages missing. Signed by P.T. Barnum, "P.T. Barnum", under the date of "July 19, 1876" who then also listed his residence as "Damariscotta". The book contains 125+ stunning ad broadsides on heavy paper stock advertising dentists, barbers, ladies' doctors, clockmakers, tombstone cutters, hairdressers, bootmakers, and insurance brokers. Pages with expected handling marks and occasional staining.

 

Belle Haven Hotel, now known as the Nickels-Sortwell House on 121 Main Street, was once commissioned by Captain William Nickels, a ship owner and trader who commissioned the mansion in 1807, but died soon after its completion. Nickels, whose earlier success had enabled to build such a lavish house, was financially ruined by the Embargo of 1807 and the War of 1812, and died in 1815. From 1820 to 1900 the house was operated as the Belle Haven Hotel. During this time a number alterations were made to the interior, including subdividing some of its bedrooms. The house was purchased in 1899 by Alvin Sortwell of Cambridge, Massachusetts, and redecorated by his family in the then-fashionable Colonial Revival style. Today, the property was designated a National Historic Landmark and listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

 

The lovely historically important Guest Register is signed by P.T. Barnum with a large 3.5" bold signature, under the date of July 19, 1876. The location of "Damariscotta", is one of the P.T. Barnum circus routes. The guest register is full of broadside ads which repeat every other page so as to be visible to the registering guests daily (which could in fact be removed individually and sold separately).  Approximately 60 broadsides are present in varying conditions.

 

Wicasset Maine, the location of the Belle Haven has a rich and important history. In 1605, Samuel de Champlain is said to have landed here and exchanged gifts with the Indians. Situated on the tidal Sheepscot River, Wiscasset was first settled in 1663. The community was abandoned during the French and Indian Wars, and the King Philips War in 1675 and then resettled around 1730. In 1760, it was incorporated as Pownalborough after Colonial Governor Thomas Pownall. In 1802, it resumed its original Abenaki name, Wiscasset, which means "coming out from the harbor but you don't see where."

 

During the Revolutionary War, the British warship Rainbow harbored itself in Wiscasset Harbor and held the town at bay until the town gave the warship essential supplies. In 1775, Captain Jack Bunker supposedly robbed the payroll of a British supply ship, Falmouth Packet, that was stowed in Wiscasset Harbor. He was chased for days and caught on Little Seal Island. His treasure reportedly has never been found. Because of the siege during the Revolutionary War, Fort Edgecomb was built in 1808 on the opposite bank of the Sheepscot to protect the town harbor. Wiscasset's prosperity left behind fine early architecture, particularly in the Federal style when the seaport was important in privateering. Two dwellings of the period, Castle Tucker and the Nickels-Sortwell House, are now museums operated by Historic New England. Wiscasset quickly became the busiest seaport north of Boston until the embargo of 1807 halted much trade with England. Most of Wiscasset's business and trade was destroyed.

 

A fascinating piece entrenched in US history. Left unexamined for other famous names.


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