ARDEN, Edward H

Album of Sketches and Photographs from HMS Druid and HMS Boxer, 1874-1878.

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circa 1878. Thick small folio album, with a wonderful selection of sketches signed "E.H. Arden" or "E.A.H.", as well as photographs and track charts; in total 32 ink sketches ranging from a large 17 x 24 cm to one tiny thumbnail (but most around 10 x 20 cm); 6 photographs including one of Navy officers with Arden himself marked; 15 views on shore (most of plantations and polite society); 11 track charts from the voyaging of HMS Boxer in 1877; 5 cartoons in the style of "Punch"; 2 plans of the wardroom of HMS Druid (before and after); and a silhouette of a British Naval officer;all tipped onto the thick card leaves of a fine contemporary album, occasional manuscript notes, some foxing, but otherwise excellent. A fascinating and important album, with sketches and photographs by the Royal Navy officer Edward H. Arden, detailing the voyage of HMS Druid to the West Indies in 1874-5, and of HMS Boxer to the Ivory Coast and Southern Atlantic Ocean in 1877-8. Almost certainly assembled as a family keepsake, the album shows Arden to be an accomplished topographical artist, while the photographs, in particular, are rare images of the British Navy in this era.

The first part includes sketches from Arden's voyage to the West Indies on the corvette HMS Druid, launched in 1869. There are fine sketches of St Kitts, Barbados, Antigua and other West Indian locales, as well as many images of life in the plantation houses of St Kitts, in particular: one delightful scene shows people playing croquet before a grand house. An especially good sketch depicts a waterfall in Martinique, while a third shows Fort de France with, in the background, the rough outlines of the statue of the Empress Josephine.

This section also includes, unusually, a fine photograph of HMS Druid, as well as two shots which can be assumed to show the officers and crew of the vessel: one man holding the ship's dog is marked with an "X", and is almost certainly Arden himself (the final image in the whole volume is an un-captioned silhouette, and this is most likely the young officer as well).

The second half of the album is an even more detailed account of his time on HMS Boxer, launched in 1868. This section has many track charts of their voyages, and the sketches are particularly interesting regarding his long stays on the African coast from Liberia to the mouth of the River Congo. For example, one fascinating image shows, in Arden's words, the Navy vessels Pioneer, Boxer, and Avon, "destroying the village of Imblama, River Niger, Aug 17 1877" (there is also a pencil version of the same scene). It was a time of great unrest in the region, and towns including Abo, Onitsha, Atani, and Aguleri were bombarded by the Navy during this period, but it is not often that one sees such vivid visual testimony (see Encyclopedia of African History, p. 675).

Also included are five skilful cartoons, which are all very much in the style of Punch.

Records are not very detailed, but Arden appears to have died of yellow fever in September 1879 while still serving on HMS Boxer (a contemporary report of his death is dated Halifax, Nova Scotia). Given that at least one of the sketches is taken from a letter written by Arden, and particularly considering that the final photograph shows a marked grave (in an unknown cemetery), it is quite possible that this album was prepared by his family as a keepsake of his many accomplished drawings.

The sketches in this volume are unusually accomplished, and taken as a whole, the album represents a real insight into not only these two voyages to such important destinations, but a snapshot of naval life in the 1870s. The fact that a photograph (and perhaps even a silhouette) of Arden himself is also included, is most unusual for such albums, making this an uncommonly complete archive. A full listing is available on request.

• AUD 24,000.00 > otras divisas
• nº de pedido: 712_436

• librero: Hordern House (AUSTRALIA)