Employee’s hand seems to reach for the mermaids in the illustration.
From p. 245 of The Fairy Mythology: Illustrative of the Romance and Superstition of Various Countries, v. 1, by Thomas Keightley (1833). Original from the New York Public Library. Digitized June 20, 2006.
Employee holds plate closed. Discovered by Christina Paik of Dr. Terry Harpold’s University of Florida course Paratexts.
From the back matter of A Description of the Mermaid, Now Offered to the Inspection of the Public, which was Found on Board a Native Vessel in the Archipelago of the Malaccas, and Carried to Batavia in a Dutch Ship (date unknown). Original from Oxford University. Digitized May 18, 2009.
