Photo Album with Boards of Irish Black Bog Oak, With Elaborate Relief Decoration, and With Silver Border Framing the Boards
- Quarter Morocco. Wooden boards, with Silver Borders, Silver Clasp
- Scotland , 1860
Scotland, 1860. Quarter Morocco. Wooden boards, with Silver Borders, Silver Clasp. Very Good. N.d., mid-19th Century, with many images clearly from the 1860s and 70s, based on the dress. 4to. 31by 25.5 cm. With 23 leaves, each with eight slots for photos, four on each side. The album at present has 160 items, mostly photos, in these slots. The photos are mostly portraits of family members, we presume, with a few images of famous Scots such as Sir Walter Scott and Robert Burns. For us, the most important part of the album is its binding, which is both very unusual -- we had never seen a photo album thus -- and very beautiful, evoking the Medieval, but also being different than any Medieval binding we've ever encountered. The silver also is marked on the clasp. The relief on the front has both a winsome naivete and a complexity. Figurative elements include a regal dog, probably a hound, in profile, in front a a lyre and a tree. In front of the dog is a narrow tower. Above, centered, is a crown. Do all these pieces cohere in some way, we can't say. Everywhere else on the board are carved leaves and tendrils of clover. The rear board, instead of relief, which would be vulnerable on the side upon which the album would be expected to rest, the decoration is a simpler escutcheon surrounded by a more abstract floral pattern.
Details
Title
Photo Album with Boards of Irish Black Bog Oak, With Elaborate Relief Decoration, and With Silver Border Framing the Boards
Binding
Quarter Morocco. Wooden boards, with Silver Borders, Silver Clasp
Condition
Very Good
Publisher
Scotland
Date
1860