Lot 40
Alexander, Sir James Edward (1803-1885)
Sketchbooks of his travels in Canada, 1840s-50s
Auction: The Library of General Sir James Alexander | Wed 25 February from 10am | Lots 31 to 62
Description
8 albums, all oblong 12mo (various dimensions, approx. 7.5 x 15cm to 9.5 x 16cm), varicoloured leather bindings with brass clasps and catches, numbered in gilt on spines (1, 3, 4, 5, 9, 10, 11, 13), illustrated throughout with sketches in various media (pen and ink, pencil and watercolour; mainly in pen and ink), approx. 650 leaves in total (with sketches to all rectos and frequently also to versos), detailed manuscript captions (often dated), subjects including: views of landscapes, settlements, and homesteads in Quebec, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, ‘Canada West’ (i.e. Ontario), New York and elsewhere; portraits of Indigenous peoples, soldiers and sailors, local characters and figures of note; depictions of daily life, social occasions, expeditions and excursions, comic mishaps, etc., in civil and military contexts; sketch maps; and more. Notable content in each volume (listed by spine-number) includes:
1) (85 leaves; dated 1841-2). Views in New York State (Fort Frederick, Oswego, Lake Onondaga), Canada West (Kingston, Niagara, Hamilton); homesteads and settlements (e.g. Oxford, Canada West); ‘scene of the Battle of Stoney Creek’; portraits, caricatures and social encounters (‘Broadway Swells, 1841’; ‘a loafer of the west’; ‘Street cart, N. York, 41’; ‘Fellow passengers to New York’; ‘encounter with Washington Irving after a party in the dark – he tried to hold back our carriage’; ‘The Kingston pie man’); ships; plan of Mt Pisgah on Lake Erie; full-length portrait of a Native American with a bow (captioned ‘Tonowantowongowango’).
3) (72 leaves). Approx. 20 watercolours (variously in grisaille or full colour) of a hunting trip around Lake Loughborough, including camping scenes, carousing, etc., local characters, etc.; ‘Inuit at Buffalo’; various social classes at Buffalo; views of Niagara; windmill at Chippawa; panorama of the remains of Fort Erie; portrait and homestead of one Bill Johnstone of French Creek; American voting practices (‘Manner of taking the ballot, U. States).
4) (89 leaves; dated ownership inscription ‘Sir Jas. Edward Alexander, 14 Regt, R. Engineer Depart[men]t 1844, Forest of N. Brunswick, Military Road Survey’). Principally views of surveying activity, tree felling and road construction in forested areas, with related portraits and scenes (e.g. ‘Lt Simmons RE at Grand Falls’; ‘Jacob Segee, axeman – a Mormon!’; portraits of Indigenous peoples (‘Mic Mac, Fredericton’; ‘Micmac Squaw of N. Brunswick’) and European settlers; views (several on the St Johns River; St Helen’s Isle, Montreal); settlements and homesteads (Beaumont, Berthier on the St Lawrence River, Kamouraska).
5) (96 leaves). Natural history subjects; 2 double-page views of Windsor and St Margaret’s Bay, both in Nova Scotia; further views (Lake Oromocto, New Brunswick; ‘First view of Nova Scotia Cote d’Or, 1844’; Lake Temiscouata, Quebec; Kamouraska; cliffs of the Saguenay, Quebec; Cape Breton, Nova Scotia); plan of the Bay of Fundy; ‘Wooden fort of Hudsons Bay Company’; Indigenous peoples (‘Halifax Indians’; ‘Indian female + papoose’); local characters and personalities; soldiers and sailors; icebergs; a comic sketch captioned ‘Lost on the Upper Miramichi and the leather leggings in danger of being made mincemeat of’; an anomalous sketch captioned ‘Persian Pearl Diver, Bahrein [Bahrain], 1826’.
9) (47 leaves; ownership inscription ‘Sir James Edwd Alexander, 14th Halifax, NS, 1st Nov. 46). Moose-hunt near Halifax (several sketches); barrack-room life; social caricatures.
10) (70 leaves; ownership inscription ‘Sir James Edwad Alexander A.D.C., 1847-8). Sketch maps; portraits of locals (‘Yankee hair dresser, Boston, 1842; ‘Winter Yankees’; ‘A French Canadian Irish emigrant’; settlements and homesteads (e.g. Yamaksa, Detroit City; ‘The principal temple of the Davidites’, i.e. the temple of the Davidite Quaker sect in Sharon, Ontario; ‘The house built by Dr Dunlop at Goderich’).
11) (98 leaves; ownership inscription ‘Sir J. E. Alexander, 1849’). Scenes and inhabitants of Sorel, Quebec; several scenes around Lake Champlain including Ruins of Fort Ticonderoga, New York; views of various settlements and landscapes in Quebec and New Brunswick (‘old French works west of Citadel, Quebec’, double-page; St Leon Springs; Hunterstown on R. de Loup; Sugar Loaf Mountain; Lake George; Sherbrooke); maple-syrup production; recreations including ‘Equestrian journey round Eastern Townships, Canada’ (double-page) and ‘American Lady bathing at Coney Island watched by her husband’.
13) (85 leaves; ownership inscription ‘James Edwd Alexander A.D.C., 1851’. Montreal policeman disarming a ‘rioter’; views and residents of St Eustache; ‘Indian warrior’; scenes aboard HMSS Birkenhead (famously wrecked in 1852); views around Lake Chateauguy (including one double-page); birthplace of Alexander’s son Edward Mayne Alexander born (Brunswick Street, Halifax, Nova Scotia); a few Scottish views.
The lot sold with a collection of c. 80 family letters, 1837-1907, mainly from Sir James Edward Alexander to his wife Lady Eveline Alexander while stationed in Canada in the 1840s (but also including letters to J. E. Alexander from various correspondents on genealogical matters, i.e. Alexander's claim to the earldom of Stirling, and a few letters to Lady Alexander in French), and two albumen print cartes-de-visite of an unidentified man from Mathew Brady's photographic studio in Washington (1860s) (8 albums and a folder)
Provenance
THE LIBRARY OF GENERAL SIR JAMES EDWARD ALEXANDER (1803-1885)
Footnote
Alexander travelled to North America with the rank of captain in his new regiment the 14th foot in 1841. Between 1844 and 1845 he was detached to the Royal Engineers to help survey for a military road connecting Quebec and Halifax, recalling in a statement written decades later in support of his candidature for the Order of the Bath that ‘the work was very trying; and [I] got no promotion or reward for this beyond 10s. a day when in the bush, 7s. when working at plans and reports’. In 1847 he was appointed aide-de-camp to Sir Benjamin D'Urban, commander-in-chief, North America, whom he had previously served in the same capacity during the Cape Frontier War in South Africa in 1835, and continued as aide-de-camp to D'Urban's successor Sir William Rowan until 1855, when he proceeded with regiment to the Crimea. He wrote or edited several books about his experiences in Canada, including L'Acadie; or Seven Years' Explorations in British America (1849), Canada, As It Was, Is, and May Be (1851), and Salmon-Fishing in Canada (1860).