Lot 509
THE COUNCIL OF ART UNION OF LONDON, ALBUM
DESIGNED BY MISS M. LILLIAN SIMPSON, 1896
Auction: 10 October 2018 at 11:00 BST
Description
Blank album in highly decorative electroplate embossed covers, over morocco or seal leather, showing an Art Nouveau fruit and floral pattern with central figures of angels to each cover, and four angels emerging from chrysalises on each cover, signed ‘Art Union of London 1896’ to covers [see Marianne Tidcombe, 'Women Bookbinders', p.89]
25 x 20cm
Footnote
Literature: Greensted, Mary and Carruthers, Annette 'Simplicity or Splendour', 1999, item 183, for the copy in the Cheltenham Collections.
Note: An example of one of the 'prizes' distributed by the Art Union of London to its members. The nineteenth century European Art Unions would typically offer paintings and proof engravings on the basis of a lottery to their subscribers. However, The Art Union of London often chose to offer more utilitarian pieces of decorative art, such as Lilian Simpson's album. Other prizes included an illustrated copy of Tennyson's 'Idylls of the King' in 1863, an alabaster bust of Apollo in 1861 and a cast iron tazza depicting classical figures. Several copies of Simpson's album seem to have been awarded to subscribers, each album being predominantly blank inside with the title-page reading:
"The cover which encloses these pages was designed and modelled by Miss M. Lilian Simpson, on a commission from the Council of Art in London, and gained…a gold medal…It was exhibited in the Royal Academy in 1896.
"The idea embodied in the design is that of the growth of life (represented by the flowering fruit) watched over by Spirits…whilst Love kisses the buds into bloom, and, as shown on the clasp, binds together the pages of the Book of Life."