2 Victorian commonplace books 1850s
- Reference:GB 237 Coll-1550
- Dates of Creation:1852
- Language of Material:English
- Physical Description:2 Volumes
Scope and Content
One volume is covered in green binding, and is dated 25 December 1852. It is 'Mother's Christmas Book'. The first page is decorated with mistletoe. Subsequent pages are decorated with floral and natural themes. Some of the drawings are initialed 'HP'. There are lines entitled, 'The Elswick villains', 'To a soot flake', 'A legend of Marsden rocks', 'A paragraph on poetry', 'The Hanoverian brothers', 'The policeman's soliloquy', and 'A dream'.
A second volume is covered in maroon binding. It is undated, but is entitled 'A Christmas Offering for our Mother'. The pages are decorated with sketches of plants, birds, and children. Some of the drawings are initialed 'HP'.There are lines entitled, 'Sketches of a journey through Dreamland', 'Lines written in the Vatican. A fragment', 'The letter Box', 'King Cole', 'The philosophers', 'The Devil's water', 'The sea', 'Music', and 'New Year's Eve'. One of the illustrations, shaded with pencil, and accompanying 'The philosophers', may be an early form of photographic image (perhaps a calotype, or salted-paper print).
Administrative / Biographical History
Commonplaces or commonplace books were a means of compiling knowledge, usually by writing information into books. The books were, in effect, scrapbooks filled with items such as medical recipes, quotes, letters, poems, tables, proverbs, prayers, legal and mathematical formulas. Commonplaces were used by readers, writers, students, and scholars as an aid for remembering useful concepts or facts that had been learned. Every commonplace book was unique to the particular interests of the creator.
In this instance, the commonplace books were a gift to a mother.
Access Information
Open to bona fide researchers, but please contact repository for details in advance of visit.
Acquisition Information
Acquired by purchase. Accession no: E2014.39.
Archivist's Note
Catalogued by Graeme D. Eddie 6 June 2014
Genre/Form