Old Wooden Bookends with 1853 Madison Square Hippodrome Engravings red and yellow wooden apple and the number 55631 written

and the number 55631 written in pencil in the upper left corner

R likely stands for Ingersoll Scout Reservation in London Mills

upon which it balances perfectly

I purchased it at an estate sale in Waltham

just the color of my favorite native grasses in the fall

Old Wooden Bookends with 1853 Madison Square Hippodrome Engravings red and yellow wooden apple and the number 55631 writtenFound the other day in New Hampshire, I thing these are interesting, and quite beautiful, too. The scallop shaped bookends feature 1853 engravings (one exterior one interior) of the Hippodrome on Madison Square (known as Franconi's Hippodrome), which appear to have been trimmed from the original prints, mounted to wood and varnished over, looking now very much like the surfaces of early lacquered snuff boxes. Franconi's Hippodrome opened May 2, 1853