Wonderful (and Long!) 1840 Letter from Elias A Brown To "My Dear Wife," with Beautiful Cross Writing Victorian era The more time I spend

The more time I spend with it the more I really like

With a curious hard right edge to the oval

and the form of the vessel with a great pear-like shape

On the reverse of the card are notes thatappear to have been written by the granddaughter of the subject

and if so my guess is painted toward the tail end of Belgian occupation (1950s) or just after-- the inclusion of armed soldiers in black at left provides no definitive clue

Wonderful (and Long!) 1840 Letter from Elias A Brown To "My Dear Wife," with Beautiful Cross Writing Victorian era The more time I spendI have for a long time wanted to turn up a good example of cross writing, shown here on the first page of this letter, brilliantly (and beautifully!) used in the early mid 19th century as a way of conserving space and paper. I just love to look at it! But happily this is a pretty wonderful and notable letter, too, written from Elias A Brown to his dear wife Louisa Anna (Cady) Brown in Minaville, Montgomery County, NY, 1840. There is a good bit about