eBay Tuesday: Charles Allyn Bookmarks

It's a fairly common practice for a bookstore to include a bookmark when you make a purchase. You get a way to help you remember where you are in the book and, of course, a reminder of where you can go if you want to pick up another good read.

Today's item can help you out with the first part, but not so much the second given that the store these bookmarks advertise hasn't been around for about 150 years. Still, as with most things that appear on eBay, you can wring some history out of this item offered by user Tony Everhart.

The decorative bookmarks advertise "Charles Allyn, Books and Stationery" in New London. Allyn was born in 1842 in Willbraham, Mass., and initially had a career in New York customs houses. He served in this role for six years after marrying his wife, Helen Louisa Starr, in 1867. Then in 1873, the family moved to New London.

Starr was the daughter of William Holt Starr, who served two terms in the Connecticut legislature and owned a large manufacturing business in Brooklyn. However, he was also involved in printing and publishing (at one time assisted by Edgar Allen Poe) and later in life published the weekly journal The Repository and ran a bookstore at 4 Main Street.

Allyn's apparently moved with the purpose of taking over this business, as he purchased his father-in-law's bookstore and publishing business. Like Starr, he was also involved in the New London County Historical Society. 

In particular, Allyn was heavily involved in the 1882 publication of The Battle of Groton Heights, an account of the Revolutionary War battle. Although William Wallace Harris is credited as the author of this work, Allyn was involved in a committee commemorating the centennial of the 1781 battle and made several revisions and additional notes to update Harris' 1870 book.

Allyn was also published the Daboll Almanac. He died at the age of 45 in 1888.

The bookmarks are described as being in good condition, with some edge and corner wear, and measure four-and-a-half inches by one inch. The starting bid is 99 cents, and the auction ends at about 8:14 p.m. on Wednesday.

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