[Victorian Scrapbook] Tatham, Elizabeth. (1849-?)
1867 Commonplace Scrap Album with Drawings, Jokes, and Autographs
A beautiful Victorian-era scrapbook containing original pencil, pen and ink, and watercolor drawings, humorous autograph poems, riddles and jokes, pasted-in pictures and poems, and autograph signatures. Dated 1867 and with the ownership signature of its compiler, Elizabeth Tatham, on the first page. Elizabeth Tatham (b. 1849) was the daughter of George Tatham of Leeds, Yorkshire, a leather manufacturer and the Mayor of Leeds from 1879 to 1882. The very skilfully-executed drawings are initialed by Elizabeth Tatham and by another person with the initials G.T., possibly her father or a sibling. Highlights of the drawings include ink and watercolor hunting scenes, courting scenes, and society scenes with humorous captions. A particularly striking page displays a poem titled "Flirts in Hades," surrounded by appliquéd male and female faces with butterfly wings. Also included is a page of clipped signatures from Liberal politicians and personalities, including W. E. Gladstone, Lord Amberley (John Russell, Viscount Amberley), Sir Andrew Fairbairn, Sir Thomas Bazley, Baronet Sir H. J. Ingilby, the Dean of Carlisle (Francis Close), and many others, as well as several further pages of autographs and one page of clipped crests. Red leather and gold boards, front board detached, with spine heavily worn, but otherwise intact. Marbled endpapers. Internally overall in very good to fine condition, with the excellent drawings very well preserved. 9.5 x 11.5 inches (23.5 x 29 cm).In England, the tradition of keeping a commonplace book began in the 15th and 16th centuries; the books would be filled with recipes, quotations, poems, useful information, proverbs or prayers. Friendship albums, usually kept by young women, were a place for friends to enter their names, quotations, or drawings at the owner's request. By the 19th century, scrapbooking was firmly established as a pastime for children and young women, and the widely available cheap printed materials, or "scraps," for pasting in became a large component of many scrapbooks. (12329)
Art/Sculpture Art & Design