Three scrapbooks from the Clarendon Collection

In the Clarendon collection are three scrap books from the middle of the 19th century. While they are in themselves unremarkable they provide the viewer with an insight into the hopes and interests of their owners; *Louisa Kate Cathcart, Mary Jane Welsh and *Kate Cathcart. (see 'Origins' below)

In each case the album was given to them by another, Louisa received hers from her Mamma at Christmas 1854, Jane hers from a Mr T Reiby probably during 1833 and Kate was given her album by 'one of her friends' in 1858 (that friend was rather formal and addressed her as 'Miss Cathcart'.

The content of the books are a mixture often found from those days, with hand-written messages, poems, both original and copied, illustrations and pictures of local scenes and wildlife drawn by the owner and her acquaintances, pressed flowers and cut-out steel engravings and lithographs depicting European and classical scenes. There was however only one photograph, which is not surprising as photography was even then only a very recent development.

In between the leaves are a few ephemera such as a playbill in which the popular variety performer Mr.J.R.Black "has the honor to intimate that his last entertainment but two will be presented on Tuesday Evening, August 6, 1861" at the Theatre Royal in Hobart. (in fact he used that phrase on more than one occasion and this probably wasn't his last appearance).

The actual construction of the albums themselves is interesting. They are leather bound with gilt and pressed designs; all bear various watermarks, those below are the most prevalent:

"R Turner Chafford Mill" is notable in that Turner's fine-woven writing paper was employed in early paper (calotype) photographic negatives and also used by the poet Tennyson (or his wife Emily).

"J Whatman 1852", another fine paper-maker patronized by such notables as J.M.W. Turner and Queen Victoria. Whatman's company was the pioneer in steam-driven paper mills.

"Smith & Allnutt 1822". This company made paper in water-powered mills along the Loose River in Kent, but unlike the former two who went from strength to strength, is believed to have become bankrupt a little later on.

Two of the albums had protruding 'stub' pages which look at first glance as if someone had carefully cut pages out with a sharp knife, however it is more likely they were included to allow full-page cuttings and illustrations to be easily attached. This is similar to the system used by the American author and humorist, Mark Twain, who's patented pre-pasted scrap book was one of his more successful inventions. Some pages include empty embossed frames in which the owner could draw and other pages are of differing colours.

Over time the gum used to affix items in these books has tended to fail, resulting in a fair number of articles detaching from their pages and remaining loose. The pressed flowers are however is quite good condition and remain in place.

To view the scrapbooks-

To view a book click on its link below; this will take you to an index page showing thumbnails of all the pages in it. Clicking on a thumbnail gives a full-screen view of the page with the opportunity to go to the next or previous pages, or to return to the index page.

•   Book1 (Trust Registration Number CL19930098)
•   Book2 (Trust Registration number CL19930099)
•   Book3 (Trust Registration Number CL19930101)