Album of mid nineteenth-century illustrations, including a view of HMS Terror and Erebus.

Bookseller Notes

A mid nineteenth-century album of accomplished pen-and-ink sketches, including an evocative depiction of HMS Terror and Erebus stranded in pack ice. The geographically and topically varied subjects include tree felling at Burnham Beeches (Bucks), the overgrown interior of St Joseph's Chapel at Glastonbury Abbey, the tragic muse Melpomene, a Bavarian Politican, and various cartoonish/comical images. Some are particularly whimsical, perhaps especially the image of Gutenberg showing his invention of moveable type to his wife (whilst Gutenberg's garb is convincing enough, she looks positively Victorian). 'The Terror and Erebus stranded in the pack' is likely a copy of a drawing by John Edward Davis (Royal Navy officer, hydrographic surveyor and artist who served on Franklin's expedition), which appeared in James Clark Ross' A Voyage of Discovery and Research in the Southern and Antarctic Regions during the Years 1839-1843 (1847).The handful of earlier pen and pencil sketches - which include a view of Hastings and a couple of churches, have a remarkably modern sensibility.