1859 Winslow Homer Christmas Centerfold, Ottawa Parliament, Hester Pratt Dec 24

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🗞️ HARPER'S WEEKLY · December 24, 1859
Complete Issue · New York

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A collector's Christmas Eve issue anchored by Winslow Homer's decorative double-page centerfold "A Merry Christmas and Happy New Year" — his ninth and most festive illustration in Harper's Weekly in 1859, published on Christmas Eve as the most tumultuous year of the antebellum era drew to a close. Combined with the proposed Ottawa Parliament Buildings and a Hawthorne-inspired front-page story, this is a warm and historically significant holiday issue.

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🎨 WINSLOW HOMER — "A MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR"
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🎄 DOUBLE-PAGE CENTERFOLD — "A MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR" — BY WINSLOW HOMER — FOUR VIGNETTES
A very decorative double-page centerfold by Winslow Homer — his ninth and most ambitious holiday illustration of the year, featuring four seasonal vignettes arranged in an ornamental composition celebrating Christmas and the New Year. This Christmas centerfold represents a significant departure from Homer's earlier seasonal single-page works — "Skating at Boston," "March Winds," "April Showers," "May Day in the Country," "August in the Country," "A Cadet Hop at West Point," "Grand Review at Camp Massachusetts," "Fall Games — The Apple Bee" — and marks the culmination of his extraordinary 1859 Harper's Weekly run with his most decorative and celebratory composition. Homer was 23 years old when this centerfold appeared, in the final months of his Boston period before his move to New York City transformed his career. Nine major illustrations in a single year — culminating in this Christmas double-page centerfold — is a remarkable concentration of early Homer work that would be virtually impossible to duplicate across any other year's run of Harper's Weekly. An original double-page centerfold — not a reproduction — of an early work by one of the greatest American painters of the 19th century, published on Christmas Eve 1859 — one of the most consequential years in American history.

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🏛️ THE NEW PARLIAMENT BUILDINGS — OTTAWA
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🍁 TWO-THIRDS PAGE — "THE PROPOSED NEW PARLIAMENT BUILDINGS AT OTTAWA CITY, CANADA" — WITH ARTICLE
A two-thirds page illustration and article on the proposed new Parliament Buildings at Ottawa — published just two years after Queen Victoria had designated Ottawa as the capital of the Province of Canada in 1857, and as the Gothic Revival design of Thomas Fuller and Chilion Jones was being finalized. The Parliament Buildings would be completed in 1866 and became the defining architectural symbol of Canadian nationhood — the Peace Tower, the Library of Parliament, and the Centre Block that still dominate the Ottawa skyline. This early illustration of the proposed design is a primary document of the birth of Canada's national architectural identity, published eight years before Canadian Confederation in 1867. A significant piece of Canadian architectural and political history.

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📖 HESTER PRATT'S NEW YEAR'S DAY
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📖 FRONT PAGE — "HESTER PRATT'S NEW-YEAR'S DAY" — WITH "THE BLIND GIRL AT HESTER PRATT'S TABLE"
A front-page story and nearly half-page illustration of "Hester Pratt's New Year's Day" — a fictional tale likely inspired by or referencing Hester Prynne, the protagonist of Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter (1850), whose name resonated powerfully with American readers nine years after the novel's publication. A significant piece of Victorian American literary and holiday fiction.

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📋 CONDITION
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I photograph every page of every issue so you can inspect the condition closely before purchasing. Please review all images carefully and don't hesitate to ask any questions — I'm happy to provide additional detail or close-up shots of any page, illustration, or area of concern before you buy.

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📌 DETAILS
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Publication ········ Harper's Weekly
Date ··············· December 24, 1859
City ··············· New York
Format ············· Illustrated newspaper, complete in 16 pages

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📦 SHIPPING & PRESERVATION
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• Stored in an acid-free protective bag and flat-shipped in a padded envelope with heavy cardboard reinforcement
• Fully tracked for your peace of mind

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🔍 SEO TAGS
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