Ode to the Alphabet, Earlier 19th Century Manuscript Tribute to the Useful, Pleasant, and Ever-Unfolding A,B,C's handmade pouches and which I find just

and which I find just gorgeous

one fit inside the other to create a tiered form

where one finds "Life's fairest lot be thine"  preceded by handwritten verse: Then hasten time / The happy day / When we shall meet / To Part no more

That fabric is well worn (and I’d guess had a first life as a dress or petticoat before becoming a stool covering)--threadbare in places as evident

Table measures 10 1/8" l x 7 3/8" d x 4 3/8" t

Ode to the Alphabet, Earlier 19th Century Manuscript Tribute to the Useful, Pleasant, and Ever-Unfolding A,B,C's handmade pouches and which I find justFound digging deep in a pile at Brimfield certainly this one would attract little attention for the looks of it, but for me it was a delight to find, an ode to the alphabet itself! Earlier 1800s, black in on faded blue paper, like the alphabet somehow managing to endure. Among the curious, useful and pleasant thing of the world nothing seems to unfold so much respecting all ages as the Alphabet and might be rightly termed the fountain which sends