| Description | Model or exemplar for a "Ladies' Book", with a printed preface advertising the benefits of the volume. A dedication page reads; "To her most gracious Majesty, the patroness of all that is beautiful, elegant, and refined in the arts of the empire: This album, designed for the use of fashionable circles; blending instruction with amusement, and offering novelty combined with splendour, is most respectfully dedicated by Her Majesty's most obedient, and most devoted servants, the proprietors." Printed in London: R Willoughby, 109 Goswell Street.
Contains blank pages in different colours and types of paper; printed poems, mottoes, songs, music, etc, usually within embossed borders or cartouches; blank embossed motifs and pages with engraved borders and no text. A few of the embossed pages have been filled in with small pencil drawings and the centre of one of the final pages has been cut away but otherwise there is no sign of use.
A plumber's bill dated 1836 is loose at the rear of the volume. |