Commonplace book of Lavinia Gibson (Featherstone), wife of Hugh Gibson of Glenample Station, southwest Victoria, containing important ephemera relating to the Loch Ard shipwreck, including the earlies

A$25,000 · Offered by Douglas Stewart Fine Books

Signed

Small quarto album (235 x 190 mm), original binding of embossed burgundy morocco ruled in gilt (boards a trifle scuffed), spine decorated in gilt; all edges gilt; marbled endpapers; first blank with a gift inscription to Lavinia Featherstone (later Gibson) from Annabella Helen Gibson (later Sloane), her future sister-in-law, dated 1 January 1855: Give me as token of affection / Some passing thought, some recollection / On which to muse in future years / A Talisman for smiles or tears: / Smiles shoulds t thou live and happy be, / Tears o er thy grief or memory (at the time Annabella wrote this dedication, both young women were engaged and were shortly to depart for Port Phillip, where they would marry their respective husbands); approximately [100] pp, filled with manuscript entries (mostly poems dedicated to Lavinia by her friends and family), pasted-in ephemera (mourning cards, newspaper cuttings including obituaries, death notices and articles relating to family and acquaintances in Victoria, England and Scotland), portrait photographs of Lavinia Gibson, her husband Hugh Hamilton Gibson, Hugh s sister Annabella Helen Sloane (the latter two added from another family album, loosely inserted) and her husband Alexander Sloane, several pencil sketches (including a coastal view at Glenample dated 1871), and pressed botanical specimens; the earliest entries date from 1855, just prior to Lavinia s departure from England for Port Phillip. The single-most important item one of enormo

• Binding: Hardcover

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