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Large album, 30 x 24cm. Approximately 220 pages, 40 unused, with a quantity of additional tipped-in and loosely inserted pamphlets and ephemera. Featuring most prominently are Rosalind Howard, The Radical Countess of Carlisle, and her husband, George Howard. The former in terms of her speeches and appearances in campaigning for women's suffrage, temperance and the Liberal Party, the latter with his artistic contributions, his own & others, and occasional speeches. Original art comprises approximately 60 varied watercolours, pen & ink and pencil sketches. With two signed early works by George Howard dated 1856 and 1861, the first in pencil, the second a finished pen & ink drawing with verse. The young George already showing the pre-Raphaelite influence upon his work in terms of both stye and subject, the 1861 drawing in particular is reminiscent of Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Lady Cecilia Howard appears frequently, as does her husband, Charles Henry Roberts, the Radical Liberal M.P., who worked closely with Rosalind. Charles Howard, Viscount Morpeth makes more cameo appearances, and a younger daughter of the extensive family, Lady Dorothy Howard is an increasing presence towards the rear of the album, including some cuttings regarding a trip to Boston with her father to further the Temperance Movement there. The impression given is that the compiler was Rosalind Howard, and that the initial purpose of the scrapbook was to document the political activities of herself and her husband, with possibly later additions and certainly later annotations by many of their children, though given that the content peters out entirely around 1915, it is quite possible that it was a work in gradual progress by Rosalind until her death in 1921. In addition to the two signed George Howard works there is a later large pen and ink drawing annotated: "Bournemouth by Father 1877", with another finished pen and ink hunting scene loosely inserted at the same point, unsigned but almost certainly by George Howard. There are also numerous sketches in pencil, pen or watercolour, at least 10 of which are probably attributable to George Howard. Of the rest, one is a juvenile effort by Dorothy Howard, annotated as much by her mother, Rosalind, another is an accomplished pen & ink drawing dated 1888 and signed by Violet Ogilvy, some look likely to be by Cecilia Howard, particularly those of her husband, Charles Roberts and some are certainly juvenile efforts by various of the Howard children, and one might be by Cecilia's daughter, a very young Rosa Winifred Roberts. 48 pages are devoted to Rosalind Howard, cuttings covering her active engagement with politics, women's suffrage and the temperance movement, beginning in 1889, with many of her speeches, as well as articles about her. Additionally, there are three tipped-in pamphlets: an 8-page Brampton District County Council Election Address dated Feb 9th 1889, which must be one of her earliest official public speeches, a 12-page Address by Lady Carlisle on the occasion of The Inauguration of the Carlisle Women's Liberal Association July 1890, and a 13-page Speech by Lady Carlisle at the Unveiling of a Portrait of Mr Gladstone in the Newcastle Liberal Club, dated Aug 18th 1891 and signed to the upper cover by Cecilia Roberts. Other noteworthy pasted in content includes: 3 bookplates by Robert Anning Bell, a small decorated broadside poem On The Queen's Visit to Castle Howard Aug 28th 1850, a 1915 copy of Mabel Ince's The Soldier's Dream and an always welcome appearance of Punch's Political Lady-Cricketers from May 28, 1892. The album is currently in poor condition, the rear board is detached, the front board nearly so and the spine strip has been lost entirely, the boards are quite stained and battered. The contents are slightly foxed and stained, more so to the early and later pages, 2 pages have been removed and half of another has been torn off. An active, clearly organically compiled, rarely chronological impre. Seller Inventory # 6680
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