Porcher, Edwin Augustus, 1824–1878, “Sketches taken during my Voyages & Travels. E.A. Porcher.â€, circa 1860?
- Call Number:
- MSS 38
- Holdings:
- Accessible by appointment in the Study Room [Request]
- Creator:
- Porcher, Edwin Augustus, 1824–1878
- Title(s):
- “Sketches taken during my Voyages & Travels. E.A. Porcher.â€
- Date:
- circa 1860?
- Classification:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Series:
- Series III: Miscellaneous
- Part of Collection:
- Oversize 1
- Provenance:
- E.A. Porcher donated 16 drawings related to his Cyrene expedition to the British Museum in 1865. He left his remaining papers and watercolor works to Lieut. Col. Cecil Du Pre Penton Powney (b. 1862), his sister’s surviving son, who donated views, plans and elevations from the Cyrene expedition to the British Museum in 1894. The remaining manuscripts and drawings were inherited by Powney’s daughter, Beryl Wyndham Powney (c. 1896 -1976). Several components of the Porcher collection were sold by private dealers beginning in the 1970s (see 'Related Archival Materials Note' for Porcher holdings in other institutional collections).
- Conditions Governing Access:
- The materials are open for research.
- Conditions Governing Use:
- Copyright UndeterminedThe collection is the physical property of the Yale Center for British Art. Literary rights, including copyright, belong to the authors or their legal heirs and assigns. For further information, consult the Archives Department.
- Scope and Content:
- This drawing, a frontispiece study for an unpublished publication or collection, combines visual elements from select locations of Porcher’s travel, repeating motifs from his own work. Depicted are scenes from Australia (Aboriginal Australians or Torres Strait Islanders, upper left corner), Burma (stupa, center), India (elephant and howdah, lower right corner), Hong Kong (Chinese junk, center), the Middle East (scene from Tunisia or Libya, lower left). The albatross, while possibly a reference to Coleridge’s Rime of the Ancient Mariner, could also be a quotation of Porcher’s watercolor “The Wandering Albatross of the Indian Ocean, July 1842,” (National Library of Australia). An erased signature “H.S. Melville” at bottom right matches existing signatures by Harden S. Melville.
- Additional Notes:
- B1977.14.22202
- Physical Description:
- 1 drawing : watercolor, body color, on medium-thick beige paper, affixed to card mount ; 36.5 x 52 cm
- Genre:
- Watercolors (paintings), Pictorial works, Diaries, Letters, and Ships' logs
- Subject Terms:
- Anglo-Burmese War, 2nd, 1852AntiquitiesAntiquities, RomanChronColoniesDescription and travelExcavations (Archaeology)FortificationHarborsHistory, NavalJunksNavigationPagodasPiracyPiratesPunic antiquitiesShipsTemplesVoyages and travelVoyages and travels
- Subject Period:
- 1849-18611850-1900
- Associated Places:
- AsiaBurmaCarthage (Extinct city)ChinaChina SeaCyrene (Extinct city)East AsiaGozo Island (Malta)Grand Harbour (Malta)Great BritainGuangzhou (China)Hong Kong (China)MaltaMellieh̳a (Malta)Pulau Pinang (Malaysia : State)Qrendi (Malta)SingaporeTrincomalee (Sri Lanka)Tunis (Tunisia)TunisiaUtica (Extinct city)Valletta (Malta)
- Associated People/Groups:
- Porcher, Edwin Augustus, 1824-1878
- Finding Aid Title:
- Edwin Augustus Porcher Collection
- Collection PDF:
- https://ead-pdfs.library.yale.edu/19.pdf
- Archival Object:
- https://archives.yale.edu/repositories/3/archival_objects/2888
- Metadata Cloud URL:
- https://metadata-api.library.yale.edu/metadatacloud/api/aspace/repositories/3/archival_objects/2888?mediaType=json&include-notes=1&include-all-subjects=1