Early-Twentieth Century Manuscript Album and Scrapbook, with Original Artwork

Leicester, Devon, et al, 1899-1909. Hardcover. Near Fine. Full leather (7-by-9 inches), all edges gilt, in hand-made cloth cover with calligraphic initials and floral motif embroidered on front cover; approx. pp. 200, different color papers, more than half full with autographs, prose, poems, and original artwork by numerous contributors. Cloth cover sunned along spine and edges, otherwise fine. A lovely volume.

By turns funny and touching, this album compiled by Miss Elsie Nora Turner (who becomes a Mrs. along the way) includes original pen and ink drawings, watercolors, gouache, two sepia photographs (one including a very early image of a car), and 6 pages of autographs (including one with the heading, "My Wedding Day / June 9, 1909..." that is signed by her 4 bridesmaids). The artwork, contributed by friends and family, is invariably adept, ranging from the formal landscape, still life, or portrait, to cartoons (a cat caught in a goldfish bowl, a flamingo at battle with a frog, a man with wings abuzz in a field of lady flowers) -- it is sometimes direct on the page, other times tipped into corner slots (and so removable). A drawing of a bridge blown up by the Boers in 1900 is amongst the artwork. Some contribute poetry, including one in defense of women, and another quotes Longfellow's "Hiawatha." The numerous autographs she collects locate most of her friends and family spread throughout England. Interestingly, we know that Miss Turner was married in 1909. There are no entries dated later than 1909, but there is a "Baby's Catechism" clipped from a newspaper and laid-in. Perhaps, by that time, the Mrs. no longer had the time necessary to compile, document, and contribute to such a careful, spirited volume.