Photo Album with Extensive Original Illustration in the Margins Executed with Pen-and-Ink

Deacon, L. N.

Edité par England, 1895

A propos de cet article

Wonderful amateur artwork, much of horses, hunting, dogs, foxhunting, shooting, but also ships, castles, rural manor houses, quaint churches, allegorical (mythological figures), farm animals, swans. The artwork captures the spirit of the English countryside and culture enjoyed by the squire-archy of the time, or our image of it, and by doing so, reinforces that that was indeed how things were for the privileged. 8vo. 24 by 20.5 cm. 19 heavy card leaves, containing 56 photos, mostly photos of family and/or friends, we would assume, but a few photo CVs of well-known or important figures of the day. Of the latter, most are religious leaders obscure to us now, but there is a photo of Edward VII and his consort, Alexandra, from well before he ascended the throne, a CV condolence print of Sir Edward Landseer, whose artwork was surely an inspiration to the artist in this album, with its abundance of loving canine portraits. There are also several views, as opposed to human portraits. These include images of natural surroundings, one with a man looking away from the camera. almost not noticeable, providing a sense of scale. Also a commercial photo of probably the High Street of a small village by the name of Shanklin, which is on the Isle of Wight and remains to this day a tourist draw. The photos of ordinary people, or people the album compiler surely knew and probably took the photos himself, are generally captioned, and so represented in multiple photos are people with the surname of Champion, Blackett, Whittaker, Freeman, Golding and Smith. Many of the photos obviously long predate 1895, based on the sitters' dress. The sitters are of all ages -- infant to seniors, and the photos are generally well composed, sometimes with the props that were common of Victorian photo studios -- fluted architectural columns, Jacobean furniture, etc. Many of the younger people look handsome, and the older, distinguished, in a manner that wouldn't be so easy to fake. A pencilled note in the front of the album indicates that the album relates to the village of Barming in Kent. We trust this is based on information given to a prior bookseller, but we have been unable as yet to learn more about the families represented based on this tidbit of information. One full page pen-and-ink drawing,on the first page (with no window to place a photo) entitled "After the Battle", depicted a lone living horse, all tacked up but no rider in sight, the corpse of a horse and other devastation in the background. Afterward, the artwork is entirely in the margins, but this is scarcely a limitation, as the margins are generally quite large, and about half of the artwork is of an elaborate scene, with action or movement suggested, a narrative suggested. We, though, are most smitten with the unadorned portraits of dogs, all rendered with superb detail, personality and mood vividly communicated. A few of the foxhunting drawings are captioned, telling a bit of a story and naming the parties as well. Similar in spirit are a few of the horse head depictions. This type of photo album, with the decoration of the margins as was done here, is far from unique during the Victorian era, as art was embraced by the ever larger class of prosperous people with leisure time. Setting apart this particular example is the fine quality of the resulting artwork, its cohesiveness, with a cumulative power that transcends any of the individual drawings. The artist signed two of the drawings -- the first with his surname spelled out, the last one as well, with just his initials, and in both he wrote the date, July 1895. From this we would assume that he did all the artwork in that compressed period of time. There can be no question that he did it all, as there is no deviation in terms of style. Condition: Minor rubbing of the binding. Light foxing, intermingled with age toning, throughout, but neither a distraction or a subtraction from the artwork, and far from disconcerting, in our view. Clasp of.

N° de réf. du vendeur 008022

Détails bibliographiques

• Titre: Photo Album with Extensive Original Illustration in the Margins Executed with Pen-and-Ink
• Éditeur: England
• Date de parution: 1895
• Reliure: Couverture rigide
• État de l'article: Very Good
• Catalogues du vendeur:
  • Victoriana
  • Equestrian
  • Original Art
  • Albums and Sketchbooks