Album of proofs of designs by W.Harry Rogers.

Album, hard-backed and wrapped in a brown paper cover, with eighty-one leaves each of which is decorated with a rectangular gilded border into which proofs of wood-engravings of ornamental alphabets, head and tail pieces and vignettes are pasted. On the inside of the front cover is pasted a photograph probably of W.Harry Rogers.

Purchased with the Assistance of the Friends of the National Libraries

The inscription 'WmHarry Rogers from W.Bone' 'feb.1860' is probably by W.Bone of W.Bone & Sons the bookbinders. This firm bound the 1870 edition of 'Alpine Flowers' by W. Robinson for which WH Rogers designed the bookcover. The printed design for the book cover is E.693.179-1998 in the WH Rogers Archive. It appears that W.Bone bound this album and gave it to WH Rogers.

Historical significance: These book illustrations are part of the W.Harry Rogers Archive and to quote the information on the archive provided by 'RW' on 6 February 1998 on the registered file 1997/1476:-
'It is extraordinarily rare to have this kind of documentation at this level of production for the middle decades of the 19th century. The fact the (sic) the state of the designs ranges from rough sketches to finished drawings and proofs allows the pieces to document the design process very closely.'

The handwriting on the cover of this album is very similar to that which appears, because of the content of the inscription, to be that of W.Harry Rogers on the book illustration E.957-1998. The handwriting on the cover, however, is unlikely to be that of W.Harry Rogers because it says 'by the late - W.Harry Rogers'. The similarity of the handwritten inscriptions found in the W.Harry Rogers Archive makes their attribution puzzling.

E.851-1998