Friendship book

Another find amongst my husband's papers: an autograph album - only that is far too boring a word for it - which belonged to his Aunt Elsie. The book is inscribed on the flyleaf: Elsie Burrow, from Mother and Father, Xmas 1889.

Many of the entries are copied poems and maxims, but for me the appeal is in the drawings and paintings, some of which have considerable merit and charm, and are most painstakingly executed.

I believe the end of the 19th century was the time of the Boer Wars, so this is probably a soldier of that time.






The pages of the album are coloured, and by some chance many of the best pictures are on grey pages, which is a pity. Here are two like that: a painting, and an incredibly neat and polished work in pen and ink with highlights in white paint.














I have redesigned this post with the pictures on the left, and it should now be possible to enlarge them for closer study, although they become so enormous that they then have to be looked at in small segments at a time!


















And finally a little cartoon-like drawing, to take us back into a long-ago baby's world. Corsets on babies? Please!



I am always astonished that people should undertake works of this kind straight onto the pages of an album, and get it right. There are a few (including the soldier) which have been worked elsewhere, then stuck in, but the majority of contributions have been made directly on to the page.