Hooker, William Jackson | Album of antiquarian sketches

Hooker, William Jackson

Album of antiquarian sketches and engravings, circa early 1800s–1860s

Folio (415 x 318mm), comprising approximately 90 pencil sketches mainly of Scotland and Ireland with a few of England, Iceland, Holland, France and Switzerland, including four watercolors of birds (full-page and quarter-page) and a few mounted engravings; some spotting and browning, a few sheets loose. Contemporary half roan over boards; binding rubbed with loss at spine head and tail.

An attractive suite of sketches by the famed botanist and botanical illustrator, Sir William Jackson Hooker.

Sir William Jackson Hooker was born in Norwich in 1785. One of Britain’s most distinguished botanists, he served as the first official Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, transforming it into the preeminent center for for botanical research. An accomplished draughtsman, Hooker illustrated many of his own works.

Hooker’s first botanical expedition was to Iceland in 1809, resulting in his Journal of a Tour in Iceland (1813). He spent nine months in Europe in 1814, visiting Switzerland, southern France, and Italy. He then travelled to the Lake District, Ireland, and Scotland with his wife, Maria Sarah Turner, in June 1815, for their honeymoon. Hooker sketched extensively throughout his travels; many of the illustrations in his Journal of a Tour in Iceland were drawn from his own observations. The present album includes sketches from these and later journeys.

Including views of Moyne Abbey, Donegal Castle, the Giant’s Causeway, Stonehenge, the Swiss Alps, and the round towers of Kildare. Four exquisite ornithological watercolors crown the collection.

A richly personal record from the hand of one of Britain’s leading naturalists.

PROVENANCE:

William Jackson Hooker, thence by family descent