An album of watercolors assembled by the gentleman farmer and amateur artist John Tomes showing views of his manor house Weston Sands House and the surrounding countryside. Tomes recorded his estate from many angles and in all seasons as well as picturesque spots in the neighbouring countryside, including several views of the River Avon which bordered his estate. Also included are a series of watercolors taken on a trip to the Isle of Wight. There is also a view of Windsor Castle (?) across the Thames and many watercolors of medieval ruins, abbeys, and castles. Tomes also copied a number of Turner prints from the ‘Liber Studiorum’ (published 1807-1819) and his ‘Picturesque views on the Southern Coast’ (published 1814-1826).
- Artist: Tomes, John, 1791-1863, artist.
- Title: [Album of watercolors of the countryside around Weston Sands House] [art original].
- Production: [Warwickshire, England], [ca. 1818-1850]
Folio 75 T656 818
Acquired April 2021
Four sketches depicting scenes from accounts published in periodicals of the early 1820s, including The Mirror of Literature, Amusement and Instruction, volume I, 1822-23. The drawing ‘Janvier About to Kill the Indian Who had Relieved His Hunger’ illustrates the tale of Charles Janvier, which was was first published in John Long’s Voyages and Travels of an Indian Interpreter and Trader, 1791. The Mirror published an abridged version in November 1822. Janvier and two other servants had been sent by their master, Mr. Fulton, to catch supplies of meat and fish. Saved from hunger by a passing native Canadian who gives them food, Janvier kills and eats the stranger, a fate he later inflicts on one of his fellow servants. Volume I of The Mirror also recounts the story of the ‘Rescue of the Emperor Basilius Maredo’, the final sketch in this volume. The Emperor, snagged by a stag whilst hunting, is saved by the sword of a servant who is subsequently sentenced to death for drawing his sword in the presence of the Emperor. The tale of the first sketch, ‘Sultan Mahamoud punishing a Ravisher’, is told in Knapp and Baldwin’s Newgate Calendar, 1824. The final sketch, ‘A Miser Distracted’, appears to be a depiction of Aesop’s fable ‘The Miser and his Gold’, in which a miser concentrates all his wealth into one lump of gold which he buries before it is stolen from him.
