Smee Emma (1 results)

Large 4to. (32cm x 26cm). ll.100 (of which 76 blank). Contemporary half maroon morocco over marbled boards, spine with raised bands and tooled in gilt, marbled edges. Total of 35 illustrations (a large number of which are the work of the owner) comprising: 1 x pencil portrait of Christ taken from one of a set of seven engravings called "Heads from Lo Spasimo di Sicilia" (Christ bearing his Cross) published 1822, signed and dated "Emma Smee 1842" 5 x watercolour portraits, 2 of which signed by "E. Smee" 1 x pencil sketch of woman with basket 3 x pencil sketches of buildings, most likely taken from engravings 2 x seascapes in watercolour 5 x botanical watercolours, one of which signed "Elizabeth Smee" 1 x feather painting, signed "E. Smee 1837" 1 x Cove of Muscat (original pencil and ink drawing (7 x 10.5 cm on card 10 x 16 cm) initialled and dated "CL 1829") 5 x landscape pencil sketches, one signed "Miss Smee" and another "Emma Smee" 4 x envelope covers with detailed borders and "Mrs Alfred Smee" inscribed on one sample 1 x impression from a brass of a priest at Wormley Church, Herts, July 1841 1 x cutout engraving of Westminster Abbey 1 x profile of man in top hat 1 x "Shadow of the Late N.M. Rothschild, Esq." 1 x cutout of "The Late Miss Whitehead, the Bank Nun." 1 x lithograph, with later colouring possibly by the owner, entitled "Rural Employment" 1 x engraving entitled "The Lost Letter", drawn by Matt Morgan Neat ownership inscription of Emma Smee dated April 1841 to front endpaper. Album presumed to be the property of Emma Smee (1820-1842), younger sister of Alfred Smee (1818-1877), English surgeon, chemist, metallurgist, electrical researcher, inventor and orchid enthusiast. However there is a small possibility that it belonged to Emma Smee (1803-1881), Alfred's aunt, because one of the illustrations is of Leckhampton, Cheltenham, where she lived in the 1840s and 1850s (and perhaps earlier). In addition to the ownership inscription of Emma Smee dated 1841 on the first, otherwise blank, leaf of the album, three of the illustrations are signed Emma Smee (dated variously 1842, 1837 and 1836), two (undated) are signed E. Smee, and one is signed Miss Smee and one signed Elizabeth Smee. One of the pictorial envelope covers is addressed to Mrs Alfred Smee. Her husband, Alfred was Fellow of the Royal Society at the age of 23, author of sundry scientific books & the inventor of Smee's battery. He published, amongst other books, "My Garden," which was published in 1872. It was about a garden he laid out at Wallington Bridge, Beddington, Surrey, where many unusual plants were grown. The post of medical officer to the Bank of England was created entirely for him.