Large triangular swatch of floral-pattern wallpaper attributed to Edgar Allan Poe's cottage in Fordham, New York, measuring 10.5 x 5.5, affixed to an off-white 12.75 x 7.75 sheet, annotated in black ink: "From Henry J. Robinson Esq., Fordham, N.Y., Wall-Paper—Edgar Allan Poe House, 1913." In fine condition, with light creasing and a small edge tear to the off-white presentation sheet. The Poe family—including Edgar, his wife Virginia, and her mother Maria—moved into their rented cottage in the rural Fordham area around May 1846. Then located at the corner of Kingsbridge Road and Valentine Avenue, the cottage was decidedly sparse and simple; a friend of Poe's later wrote, 'The cottage had an air of taste and gentility...So neat, so poor, so unfurnished, and yet so charming a dwelling I never saw.' Poe's short story, 'Landor's Cottage,' was likely inspired by the home, which was where he composed the great poems 'Annabel Lee' and 'Ulalume.' In 1913, the cottage was relocated a short distance away to a park in the Bronx; it was probably during the relocation and subsequent reconstruction that this wallpaper was removed.
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