Bidspirit auction | Album (Manuscrito). s.d..

Album (Manuscrito). s.d.. - [ALBUM OF D. ANTÓNIO DE MELLO – DRAWINGS, POEMS AND AUTOGRAPHS]. [England, France and Portugal, 1824–1835; possible later additions, undated]. Total of 110 unnumbered ff., of which 46 bear text and/or illustrations; full red morocco binding, front cover richly gilt-tooled with the title “ALBUM”, gilt decorated spine and gilt metal clasp; all edges gilt, preserved in a matching red-morocco slipcase. Oblong 4to (c. 19 × 23 cm), with several dozen pages filled in ink in French, English and Portuguese, containing autograph poems, dedicatory texts, short prose pieces and numerous drawings in pen, pencil and wash. On the first leaf is a brief reflection in French on the meaning of friendship albums; it is followed by texts and drawings dated mainly 1824–1825: a religious poem in English, signed with the initials “H. C.” and dated “London March 10th 1824”; a group of poems and dedications addressed to D. António de Mello, including a long French poem “À D. Antonio de Mello” and a wreath of roses painted in watercolour, signed and dated “Lisbon 13 February 1825”, with the recipient’s name at the centre; a study of a warship and other vessels in Indian ink, signed “T. Verdier, mai 1825”; a large pencil drawing of caricatured figures and musicians with cats, signed “D. Esquiros, 9 de mars 1825”, together with other head studies and genre scenes. A highly interesting artefact for the study of nineteenth-century friendship albums, documenting cosmopolitan Luso-French and Luso-British networks in the 1820s–30s (London, Lisbon and possibly some French ports) and the artistic quality of several markedly Romantic drawings. The twentieth-century additions link the album to the international world of music and polite sociability, turning it into a particularly eloquent object for the long history of intimate writing and drawing practices.