Running to some 300pp and described by the auctioneers as “a most enchanting album, redolent of Jane Austen and her world”, a scrapbook compilation of paper cut-outs, views and figural studies, sold for £1550 in a general sale held in Sussex.
There was a certain Bath emphasis, according to Bellmans (22% buyer’s premium), but this leather-bound octavo album would appear to have been compiled by a Miss Harvey Bonnell of Pelling Place, Old Windsor – with a little help from her friends and family.
A Cotswold Auction Company (20% buyer’s premium) sale of the same day, February 6, included a lot, sold at £2400, that offered manuscripts compiled in the late 18th or early 19th century by members of the Beaufort family.