“I hereby agree with Robert McCleery to bind his set of Rees’s Cyclopedia in strong Calf. . .

(Salem, MA?), 1832. Manuscript receipt in ink on paper; docketed on verso.  140 x 200 mm., [5 ½ x 8 inches].  Approximately 100 words.  Highly legible and detailed content about the cost of materials and the payment terms for the commission.
The agreement reads:
“I hereby agree with Robert McCleery to bind his set of Rees’s Cyclopedia in strong Calf and finish them in a complete strong workman like manner for the following considerations the said Robt. McCleeary shall give me an order for thirty five dollars amount of leather on Mr. Michael Buckey shall deliver me ten cords of wood as soon as he conveniently can twenty bushels of irish potatoes as soon as he can conveniently do it & thirteen dollars in cash as witnesses my seal this 18th day of Sept, 1832.  {Signed} Thomas Prince.  Oct. 1st 1833 Received the above in full {Signed} Thomas Prince”.
Although there is no place named on this receipt this is likely Thomas Prince who was listed as a bookbinder in the Salem, Massachusetts City Directory of 1837.  In Hannah Dustin French’s essay, “Early American Bookbinding by Hand”, Prince is listed as a printer, blank-book manufacturer, and binder.  Born in Massachusetts in 1784, his name appears in the 1850 Census as a bookbinder in Salem, Ward 3, Essex.  He died in 1857.  The set he was to work on was Abraham Rees “The Cyclopedia; or Universal Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, and Literature, published in London in 1819 in 39 volumes, plus 6 volumes of plates and an atlas.  . (Inventory #: 1305)