EARLY SKETCHES OF GEORGE WASHINGTON, Reprinted with Biographical and Bibliographical Notes by Baker, William S - 1894

Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1894. Hard Cover. Very Good+ binding. Octavo. 150 pp., frontis. First edition, limited to 250 copies. Original cloth with leather label at the top of the spine. Light wear the covers; contents are generally and evenly toned; contents clean.

This may have been Baker's own copy, laid in is a letter from Baker to George Washington Custis Lee, dated November 6, 1893, inquiring about the current ownership of the Charles Wilson Peale portrait of Washington in his militia uniform, painted at Mount Vernon in 1772. Baker is attributing that ownership to Custis Lee, who has replied at the end of the letter, prior to returning it to Baker: "You are correct in the statement herein with regard to the portrait of Washington. Very respectfully, G. W. C. Lee, Lexington, Va, 8 Nov, 1893." Also laid in is an engraved copy of the portrait, measuring 6" x 8.75", engraved by J. B. Forrest and attributing ownership to George Washington Parke Custis, who died in 1857. This engraving was removed, apparently, from one of the G. P. Putnam's publications. Also laid in is a manuscript copy of a derogatory passage regarding Washington from J. F. D. Smyth's "A Tour in the United States of America. . ." (London, 1784). Smyth's book is written from a pro-Loyalist view, and his critical aside on Washington must have annoyed or amused Baker sufficiently, inasmuch as he copied a portion of it by hand, perhaps for reading it at one of his talks on Washington. Smyth's is one of the sketches in the book. Haynes 941.