About this Item
An architectural field sketchbook attributed to C.R.Ashbee dated September 1886, comprising 37 sketches on 36 leaves 7 x 5 inches, graphite on paper with some wash and colour. A group of finely observed architectural studies composed on a week?s tour in Northern France, including mouldings, capitals, tracery, and vernacular details of ancient buildings, executed in a confident and economical hand. The drawings vary in density and orientation across pages, indicating direct observation rather than later compilation. The hand throughout is consistent and the graphite line is sometimes hesitant, not overworked, and the stylised handwriting is very similar to known Ashbee examples. The drawings depict key monuments including Beauvais Cathedral, Senlis Cathedral, Saint-Jean-des-Vignes Abbey, and Château de Pierrefonds, alongside more intimate studies at Crépy-en-Valois and surrounding sites. Each sheet is inscribed and dated between 9 and 20 September 1886, forming a continuous record of travel. The selection of sites, together with the combining of structural views with detailed studies of ornament, aligns with the scholarly practices of architectural students of this period. Provenance and Attribution Acquired from descenda of the Arts & Crafts cabinet maker and furniture designer Hamilton Temple Smith, the volume has always been regarded in that family as a genuine Ashbee sketchbook. Temple Smith had in 1915 gone to work as a manager for renowned Arts & Crafts cabinet maker [Sir] Ambrose Heal, with whom he had collaborated on some pieces. Ambrose Heal had close links with C.R.Ashbee. Their professional relationship had probably started in 1897 when Heal had visited the Guild at Essex House to discuss furniture designs. In that same year, Heal started up his own factory and recruited Charles Adams, Ashbee?s foreman cabinet maker, as manager. Later, when the Guild of Handicraft moved from London to Chipping Camden in 1902, Heal took a further opportunity to recruit some of C.R. Ashbee?s craftsmen The link between Hamilton Temple Smith and Charles Robert Ashbee therefore lies with Ambrose Heal. The dates of the sketches correspond closely with Ashbee?s documented presence in Northern France at this exact time. As Alan Crawford notes in his biography of Ashbee, the 23 years old architect went off to Northern France in September of 1886 ?sketching as he had learnt with Fry earlier in the year, catching vivid impressions, looking in a building not for design but for atmosphere and romance; even the restored Gothic of Violett-le-Duc at Pierrefonds set him dreaming.? Ashbee was then all set for an architectural career and, after moving on to Germany from France, returned to commence working with Bodley & Garner architects in London. Stylistically and methodologically, the work sits comfortably alongside the practices of architects trained in the Gothic Revival tradition, such as those under George Frederick Bodley. Similarities with other known examples Ashbee sketchbooks are rare ? the Ashbee collection at Cambridge does not appear to have an example. The style of the current volume is similar to the remains of a documented English sketchbook by Ashbee, also dated 1886, sold at Stair Auctions, Hudson, New York in September 2013, split into 4 lots and sourced from the collection of John Alexander Gallery in Philadelphia. Similarities include the descriptive label often positioned to the side of the drawing, carefully formed rounded numerals, elongated capital S, light almost hesitant watercolour wash and slightly broken pen line, rather than heavy outlining. Additionally, the V & A holds a watercolour by Ashbee of Saon in Northern France, also dated 1886 and done possibly on the same tour, which displays the same hesitant watercolour wash exhibited in some of the sketches in this volume and those in the Stair sale. The present volume therefore offers a rare insight into the processes behind Ashbee?s work.
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