Interior view of Neptune’s Grotto, the stalactite cave near Alghero on Sardinia that was discovered by fisherman in the eighteenth century and became a popular tourist site.
829.00.00.116
Acquired September 2022
A volume of etchings by three daughters of art collector John Ingram (1767-1841) of Staindrop Hall in County Durham: Elizabeth Christian Ingram (born 1795), Caroline Ingram (1800-1819), and Augusta Isabella Ingram (born 1802). The family lived in Venice and took instruction from Venetian etcher Francesco Novelli. Most of the prints bear the monogram of one of the Ingram sisters and are dated 1816 -1821. The works include images after Rembrandt, Ostade, Pietro Novelli, and other artists, Continental views, views of Hartlepool and Newcastle, and a vignette after Bewick. Also included is an image signed “IG’ and dated 1824.
75 In54 816b
Acquired October 2021
A comic map of Great Britain: an old woman is shown in profile, facing to the left, and seated on the back of a dolphin-like monster. At the top her cap is Scotland; her neck is labeled R. Tees (River Tees) and along her back is “Humber” and “The Wash” The mouth of the creature is labeled “Thames”. The other points on the map are: Isle of Wight and Bristol Channel, Cardogan Bay, and Anglesea (a bird perched on the woman’s out-stretched hand).
Drawings H893 no. 1 Box D128
Acquired May 2021
A commonplace book kept by Thomas Sutton starting on 5 November 1819 in which he records anecdotes, quotations, epigrams, drinking toasts, many directly related to his home Nottingham and indicate the pride he feels in its history and people. He begins with a passage from John Blackner’s “The history of Nottingham” (1815) extolling the virtue of Nottingham men with a passage recounting an episode during the Glorious Revolution of 1688, followed by several passages from a range of sources in praise of Nottingham and its men, prominent political figures — Lord Grafton, Lord Dundas, Thomas Paine — and stories of local personalities. Nottingham ale warrants several pages of discourse. He provides a lengthy account of a canal boat accident, which is illustrated with a line-drawn plan followed by an extract from Christian Ignatiyus Latrobe’s Journal of a visit to South Africa in 1815 and 1816 about the destruction done by wolves at Groenekloof and the attempt of the missionaries and the native people to hunt them down and a confrontation with a tiger. Also included are copies of four letters sent by his uncle Charles Peck relating to his volunteering for an expedition to the Congo with Major Peddie, his trip along the River Gambia to Senegal, and a letter from Sierra Leone announcing his uncle’s death with a discussion of the money due him from the expedition. The remaining bulk of the volume contains excerpts from The Nottingham Review, toasts, poems by Pope, Thomas Paine, Robert Burns, Thomas Moore; comical stories as well as political events including the death of King George III. He provides a detailed, alphabetic list of the towns, boroughs, and remarkable villages in England and Wales. He relates a story about a wager laid by Colly Cibber and Pope; a woman named Jenny Hickling of Nottingham, bedridden for 61 years and other stories that piqued his attention. His interest in Africa continues in 1823 when he copies several pages from Campbell’s Travels in Africa.
LWL Mss vol. 266
Acquired July 2021
A collection of original art removed from an album: silhouettes, pressed flowers, a valentine, and drawing. The silhouettes include one of a woman in an academic gown and cap mounted on Art-Union of London ticket for entrance to an event at Theatre Royal, Lyceum on 25 April 1854; two views of the same man(?) identified as “James Evans” (on verso: Professor Rees) one with highlighting in gold. The pressed flowers are a small sheet with leaves or petals of a pink hue. The valentine is small drawing of bright flowers with a motto “Toujours unies par l’amitié” with a gold border. Also included is an amateur watercolor of a “Peasant boy” in a smock, standing on a grassy mound.
LWL Mss Vol. 269
Acquired May 2021
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).
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.
75 A2 823
Acquired July 2020
An album of amateur drawings, with scenes in Kent, East Sussex, Hertfordshire and Surrey. The artist, only identified with the initials ‘S.G.L.’, provides titles and dates for the majority of the drawings. The first group (thirteen in all) dated 1828 are views in Kent, Sussex, and Hertfordshire, including Leeds Castle, Hythe, Sandgate, Rye, Pevensey Castle, Tunbridge Wells, St. Albans, and Hatfield. The second, larger group of drawings are scenes in and round the village of Bletchingley (sometimes Bletchingly) in Surrey, depicting village life.
Folio 64 Su7 828
Acquired December 2019
An album of pencil sketches of historic buildings and grounds in Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire, presumably executed during a tour, beginning in North Yorkshire, then South Yorkshire, and ending in Nottinghamshire. Most drawings are identified.
62 Y82 825
Acquired November 2019
A volume of etchings by three daughters of art collector John Ingram 1767-1841) of Staindrop Hall in County Durham — Elizabeth Christian Ingram (1795-), Caroline Ingram (1800-1819), and Augusta Isabella Ingram (1802-) — who were living in Venice and took instruction from Venetian etcher Francesco Novellli whose own etchings were in manner of Rembrandt and whose influence can be seen in the sisters’ etchings. The style of the various impressions are very similar and were apparently made within a fairly short period if the dated prints are any indication, all bearing the date 1816 with some of the prints bound in first dated February 1816 and then March 1816. This dating seems to be confirmed by a contemporary inscription on the front free endpaper: “These are the works of the Miss Ingrams’ from their first lesson, 18…” Only five of the prints are unsigned; several impressions are in two or more states, using brown and black inks and various stocks of paper, a few bearing a British watermark and date of 1814. Some of the prints have been mounted, but most have been printed directly on contiguous leaves forming the signatures of the volume.
Quarto 75 In54 816
Acquired December 2018
