About this Item
Two scrapbook albums. Oblong quartos (about 11" x 14"). Each volume is bound in leather over beveled boards, the first has a custom-made paper wrapper. Both volumes are signed: "R.W. Briggs, 1928". The first album contains 45 leaves or about 90 pages of mounted artworks; the second album has 36 leaves or about 72 pages of mounted artworks. Most of the artworks date from the 1890s - 1910, including several dating up though the early 1920s and a few from the mid-1940s. Five loose pencil sketches and ephemera are laid in. The leather bindings are heavily worn with both spine backs mostly perished, covers are loose along the hinges, the second album has two detached leaves and detached back cover, some dust soiling and light staining to the edges of the leaves, both volumes are fair thus, with the interior artworks very good overall. Two remarkable scrapbooks containing a trove of amateur and accomplished gouache and color wash drawings, pen & ink and line drawings, book illustrations, decorative pen work, and various graphic designs (cards, vignettes, book plates, letterforms, decorative panels, borders, etc.) together with associated photographs and ephemera. The scrapbooks were assembled by Richard Briggs and include several artworks by his brother David Briggs. The gelatin silver photographs were taken by both men and a third brother, Harold Briggs. The works by Richard Briggs in particular document the influence of William Morris and the Arts and Crafts Movement, and of his teacher at the Birmingham Municipal School of Art, Richard James Williams, a leading illustrator of the British Art Nouveau. The scrapbooks include an autograph letter by Williams, (a letter of recommendation for Briggs from October, 1900), together with printed examples of his designs and illustrations. Also notable are scenes from World War I by Richard and David Briggs, including a full-page color drawing by David Briggs of the battlefield of Vimy Ridge. Among the later works are drawings and photographs of the English countryside by all three brothers, together with drawings and photographs of various locomotives by David Briggs. A selection of images from both volumes is available. Seller Inventory # 457998
Contact seller
Report this item
