Regency scrapbook of Watkin Wingfield, including 130 illustrations by him, most in colour, many executed between the ages of 8 and 12, as well as engravings, newspaper cuttings, fashion plates.

Laid down on 114 quarto pages; the leaves disbound and loose. The items themselves in good condition, on aged paper. Also included is a mass of loose material (having become detached from the album's pages), including 21 colour drawings (many marked as having been drawn by Wingfield between the ages of 8 and 12), 10 black and white drawings, 10 cut-out grotesque figures (three in colour), three loose quarto Colnaghi engravings ('Wm. Fredk. King of Prussia', 1814; 'Field Marshal G. L. von Blucher', 1814; 'His Serene Highness Leopold George Christian Frederick Duke of Saxony', 1816), and 60 loose newspaper cuttings (only one, from the Shrewsbury Chronicle, in which the source is revealed). Wingfield was named after Sir Watkin Williams Wynn, to whom his father acted as private chaplain, and included in the album is an extremely rare printed poem (no copies on Copac or WorldCat) titled 'The Welsh, or Sir Watkin's Loyalty and Patriotism, Englished, by the same Author'. In 1859 Wingfield's melodrama 'The Hidden Treasure' was published in Poole (version revised by Sir P. F. Shelley published in London in 1877), and there is a strong theatrical feel to the album. Wingfield's childhood illustrations exhibit a precocious talent: his drawings have a directness, freshness and charm, as well as a grotesque quality reminiscent of Rowlandson's illustrations to 'Dr Syntax'. Several illustrations indicate his family's good standing in society; these include a full-length cut-out silhouette of the 'Bishop of Norwich (Bathurst)', and small bust silhouettes (of 'Dr Blaney Canon of Ch Ch 1796', 'Dr - of Oxford', 'Dr Ennys of Oxford' and 'Revd Thos Stedman'). There is an excellent grotesque portrayal of 'A Dandy & Dandyzette for 1820'. Several of the early illustrations seem set in the eighteenth century, with fat squires in tricorn hats, individuals riding to hounds, the chairing of the member, a put-upon parson preaching to an unruly congregation, a tinker fiddling on a chair while peasants dance, a highlander playing at dice with a bumpkin. A large number have military themes, with soldiers on horseback, dancing with wenches, fighting, firing cannons. One is captioned, in a childish hand, 'French Soldiers attaquing Trussieu Artillery from an Ambuscade'. There is a coloured portrait of 'Bonaparte - at St Helena 1817'. Some (including two large coloured illustrations, both titled 'The Progress of Polish. 1818', and one in black and white titled 'The Consequence of not shifting The LEG'. ) are clearly copied from plates, but the majority are original. Later work includes two portraits of 'Dresden Peasants', copies of fashion plates and illustrations of native costume (for example 'A Woman of Kamtschatka'), and an attractive and well-executed pencil drawing of an old man in a chair apparently having his hair curled by a barber. Among the engravings is a striking caricature of 'Anglais a la Promenade', and a print of 'Polish Lancer, Attached to the French Impl. Guards'. Towards the end of the volume fashion and costume begin to predominate. The cuttings are generally on light themes: jeux d'esprit, poetry, anecdotes, with some material relating to Bonaparte and the French, and to society subjects such as the Prince Regent and Queen Charlotte. Titles of the cuttings include 'My wife is very musical', 'More Mermaids', 'The Lady with Death's Head'. 'Festivities at the Guildhall'; 'Impromptu Lines on the Death of the Duke D'Enghien, By Sir George Dallas, Bart.'; 'A true Story of a Ghost and Conjugal Fidelity'; 'America. Indian Philanthropy'; 'Execution of W. Morgan and G. Siggins'.