Full Blindstamped Morocco
1863 - 1869 · England
by Newland, E. F. S. (mostly)
England, 1863 - 1869. Full Blindstamped Morocco. Very Good. 4to. 29 by 24 cm. The watercolors and other drawings, which are mostly mounted, are generally of exceptional quality. Botanicals dominate, especially in terms of the watercolors, in which eleven or twelve can be so categorized. Of these, three feature fruit prominently, and another three show bouquets. One of the most charismatic of the colored artwork is a page with illumination and Gothic calligraphy. In this, there is floral decoration and small butterfly figures. Another striking page is dedicated entirely to butterflies, with a larger watercolor done on pith paper, in a Chinese manner, at the center, and cut-outs of watercolored butterflies, also probably on the same kind of paper, in the corners. Not to be overlooked are two portrayals of birds, and most unusual is a pencil and watercolored drawing of a snake. There are two portraits, one of Napoleon, which is probably printed and hand-colored, and another of William Lenthall, a seventeenth century Parliamentarian, which appears entirely painted. The pencil and charcoal drawings are more varied, with depictions of children, a steamship, ruins, bucolic settings, portraits, etc. The watercolors are often initialed, and we know the identity of the artist became it is written in Gothic calligraphy, as well as dated, on an otherwise printed page that has hand-colored ornamentation. There is one outlier, dated 1890 and initial B. A. R., and one other watercolor that stylistically would appear to have been done by the same hand, but most of the drawings were clearly done by Newland and come from the 1860s. The album itself, by which we mean the binding, is probably quite a bit older, since one of the prints within it is dated 1828, and the kind of blindstamping is typical of an earlier day. There are also several poems written out in a neat cursive. It is, though, the artwork that sets this album apart from others of the same period and genre. A few pieces are loose. The binding is heavily worn around its edges, chipped on the spine, abraded in a number of places, and repaired along its joints, yet still a handsome cover.
(Inventory #: 003709)