A delightful manuscript album or commonplace book, filled with hand-copied poetry and verse, which most likely belonging to a middle-class lady in the late Georgian era. The owner used the book as a collection space for her personal favourite extracts from literature, with the addition of a few pieces of artwork. The book contains around 150 pages of handwritten script, a couple of botanical sketches, a floral watercolour, and an ink drawing of an elderly lady, which is tipped in. The item is not formally dated, but paper watermarks read between 1823 and 1829, and the owner has dated one extract from 1828, so the bulk of the work within must have been written in the mid-late 1820s.
In good condition with significantly rubbed extremities, particularly the hinges and spine ends, with some chips to the spine ends, general rubbing to corners etc. Some rear pages are slipped in loose, the rest are firmly bound. Front board a little shaky but holding, front page clipped to halfway, remaining pages generally clean. Half-bound in red lineated leather with grey boards and grey endpapers. 23.5 x 19cm. Unpaginated.
