The Merchant and Seaman's Expeditious Measurer; Containing a Set of Tables, Which Show at One View, the Solid Contents of All Kinds of Packages and Cases.also, Rules for Determining the Contents of all Sorts of Casks, in Wine and Beer Measure

Offering this handsome 19th-century maritime merchant's volume: "The Merchant and Seaman's Expeditious Measurer; Containing a Set of Tables, Which Show at One View, the Solid Contents of All Kinds of Packages and Cases . also, Rules for Determining the Contents of all Sorts of Casks, in Wine and Beer Measure." New York: D.A. Nash, n.d., circa 1895, Stereotype Edition, Corrected. Leather hardcover, black and gold spine label, size 9.5x4.5 inches, [4] 196 pp. Includes original side page step-index tabs for easy page-turning to the desired tables. The publisher's address (24 State Street, NY) was the historic heart of shipping and trade near Manhattan's Battery Park. The manual was originally compiled by the legendary American hydrographer Edmund March Blunt and first published in 1825, and it was an essential tool used by ship captains, supercargoes, and dock masters to instantly calculate cargo volumes and cask capacities. Provenance: Additionally, this book features two historic ownership signatures inside the front cover, both dated August 13, 1895 (one written in ink, one in pencil), firmly dating the volume's active use to the late Victorian maritime era. Historical records identify one of the signatures, Hans A Engholm, as a stonecutter working in Graniteville, MA - a region world-famous during this era for its massive granite quarries. During the late 1800s, these quarries were heavily worked by skilled Scandinavian immigrant laborers. While originally compiled for ship captains, the exact mathematical tables of this book were highly prized by quarry masters and stonecutters as well to instantly calculate the solid volume and freight capacity of massive hewn stone before transport. This manual, with the signatures, bridges late-19th-century NYC maritime commerce with the historic New England stone industry. Overall condition is Very Good. Binding is secure and square. Leather is moderately scuffed and worn, with some loss and corners and spine ends, and a dime-size area at top front left corner (see picture). Mild age toning to interior, pages are free of any writing or tears. A unique artifact of 19th-century maritime and stonecutting industries history in America! [CS].…