Between the Covers

Hardcover. Quarto measuring 10" x 8.5". Red leather boards with beveled edges and gilt decorations. Contains 36 thick card leaves with 76 black and white or sepia toned photographs measuring between 1.5” x 1” and 7" x 4" with captions. 14 leaves include original paintings and 22 leaves are blank. Bumped with wear on the spine and corners with one long tear on the spine, very good with fine illustrations and photographs.

A young woman’s family photo album embellished with accomplished watercolor paintings. The title page includes the initials, “MH,” which are illustrated with twisted wood, flowers, and butterflies, presumably the initials of the artist and owner of the photo album. Other paintings include cherry blossoms, violets, and other flowers with strawberry vines, autumn leaves, butterflies, bees, dragonflies, and small dainty flowers illustrated in ink. Two paintings feature Chinoiserie Landscapes with temples, rivers, fishermen, a large crane, and painted Chinese characters. The paintings are used as frames for family portraits. The family members pictured are often dressed well in decorative blouses, jewelry, and suit jackets. Some of the frames do not have pictures inside of them but all the paintings are fully completed with rich colors and detail. All the photographs have been captioned with names of the family members and locations pictured. Several pictures are of cityscapes with bird’s eye views and particular attention towers the architecture of the churches and buildings. Cities pictured include Rye, Wesserling, Staffordshire, Amsterdam, Liverpool, and more around England and France.

An aesthetically pleasing Victorian British family album with hand-painted illustrations.

Item #425945