19th CENTURY COMMONPLACE BOOK BELONGING TO THE BIRD FAMILY

England, probably Beckenham, 1832-1862. Hardcover. Good. Written in several varying hands, with 6 fine pencil drawing vignettes (one laid-in loose, one of Napoleon’s grave signed Chas. Cadby), one pen and ink landscape vignette. A fine painting of sparrow and rose; several laid in drawings of architectural views, mainly pastoral English scenes (one view labeled Beckenham), one view for the stake of William Hunt of Brentwood (Protestant Marytyr, died 1555), and landscape. Few clippings from publications, stationery, postcard views including those for Rydal Lake (Westmoreland), Beckenham, Arundel Castle, Grange Bridge, Bolton Abbey, Exeter, Coniston Old Man, and some Welsh landscapes loose or laid-in. two full-page pasted in photographs, unidentified portraits, likely of Bird or Cadby family, and seven other photographs, loose or laid in. Original paneled calf; covers detached but present, spine mostly perished, some contents loose). Written contents include copied poems of: “Sun of the Sleepless” by Lord Byron; “From the Recesses” by Sir John Bowring (1792-1872); a hymn: “If all our hopes and all our fears” by Sir John Bowring; “Sweet is the balmy evening hour” by Miss Mitford; “It is not that my lot is low” by Henry Kirke White; Byron’s lament to H.K. White “Unhappy White! While was in its spring, And thy young muse just waved her joyous wing, The spoiler came; and all thy promise fair Has sought the grave, to sleep for ever there” copied by Alfred Bird and dated 1862. Other original work by the Bird family include, “To the First of my brother Anemonies, When Aging,” some lines from a memorial for Charles Cadby, signed by Bird dated 1846, 3 pages in memoriam of Albert, Prince Consort, died 1861, in the hand of Emily Bird dated 1862. Pasted to paper and mounted on doilies are 2 preserved dissected ivy-leaves said to be taken from Brompton cemetery. Commonplace books were collections of proverbial wisdom. Such books were essentially scrapbooks filled with items of every kind: medical recipes, quotes, letters, poems, proverbs and prayers. Many of the Bird family’s commonplace book themes encircle death and mourning. Alfred Bird, perhaps later Bird family member composed “Fair but False” in 1867 on unrequited love and in that same year “ The River of Life”, love poem to nature and another “The Lords of Lochleaven.” A memorial page left unfinished is for Emily Bird. Alfred and Emily Bird (daughter born 1827 to Charles Cadby) married at Westminster in April 1847. The book was passed between the two after their marriage where some nice Victorian themes are realized in the collection. Fine Victorian anthology tied to a single family. (Inventory #: D4411)