Commonplace book, approximately 1861-1864
- Title(s):
- Commonplace book.
- Additional Title(s):
- Cover title: Album.
- Published/Created:
- England, approximately 1861-1864.
- Physical Description:
- 1 volume (approximately 170 pages, with blanks) : illustrations ; 21 cm
- Holdings:
- Rare Books and ManuscriptsPN6245 .P6 1861Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Fund[Request]
- Copyright Status:
- Copyright Not Evaluated
- Full Orbis Record:
- http://hdl.handle.net/10079/bibid/12770375
- Classification:
- Archives & Manuscripts
- Notes:
- Bound in contemporary gilt-tooled red morocco. Leaves of the volume are of mixed colors.
Commonplace book, in numerous hands, illustrated with watercolors, ink drawings, and albumen prints, compiled from about 1861 to 1864. The compiler is unidentified. The front cover is stamped "P.H.H.M." but these initials do not match any of the names of the numerous contributors and copyists named within the volume. The initials also do not match the names signed on imitations of visiting cards, drawn on several pages. The addresses given on the visiting cards (and elsewhere in the volume) are clustered in Leamington, Lynmouth, Weston-super-Mare, and Bristol. The family name Pope appears frequently, including Mary A. Pope, Anna Maria Pope, Anna Pope, and Alfred Crosby Pope, a notable homeopath at Leamington (1830-1908).
A number of the illustrations are unsigned drawings of botanical subjects. Notable watercolors include a "View near Bolton priory ... Mary Boden pinxit"; "Old out post, Ghent, by Jas. Boden, Hull"; an unsigned illustration of several chained prisoners in a dungeon, to accompany an excerpt of verse from Byron's "The Prisoner of Chillon"; and a drawing of a locomotive ("Yankee 1861") to accompany verse from Charles Mackay's Legends of the Isles and other Poems (1845). There are also a number of skilled ink drawings, many of floral subjects, signed "D.K.S." Some of the smaller illustrations are framed by lacy paperwork.
A handful of albumen prints are also included; almost all reproduce 19th-century paintings, including Edwin Henry Landseer's Deer and Deer Hounds in a Mountain Torrent (1832?). There are several pressed botanical specimens, including small ferns. Near the end of the volume, there is an interesting wax impression glued to one leaf, which purports to come from “the crest on the pen of Marie Antoinette Queen of France."
The text includes hymns and other devotional verse, such as Charlotte Elliott's hymn "The Skylark" and John Wilson's "The Evening Cloud." - Subject Terms:
- Boden, James.Boden, Mary.English poetry -- 19th century.Pope, Alfred Crosby, 1830–1908.Pressed flower pictures.
- Form/Genre:
- Devotional literature.
Commonplace books.
Ink drawings.
Watercolors.
Photographs.
Albumen prints.
Botanical illustrations.
Seals. - Export:
- XML