Dover
In Views of England and Wales is one hardback sketchbook with pasted in paintings and drawings (plus one print) of buildings and scenes in Dover. Dating mostly to the nineteenth century, these pieces were produced in watercolour, pencil, ink, and ink and wash.
About half of them were created by three artists called Mrs Sankey, Hannam S. Thompson and the Reverend John Maule. The other half do not say who created them, but in a number of instances it can be reasonably assumed that they were produced by one of the three aforementioned artists on the basis of stylistic similarity. We know nothing about the artists beyond the fact that the Reverend J. Maule was reverend of St. Mary’s Church in Dover. Nevertheless, these artworks are an interesting snapshot of Dover and open a window onto how Dover, and its buildings, may have looked during the nineteenth century. Below is a selection of some of the pieces of artwork from the Dover sketchbook.
As is the case with much of Views of England and Wales, how or why this book of artwork found its way into the collection is a bit of a puzzle. The only clue is on the inside cover of the sketchbook where there is a price for £2 2s and possibly 1d written in pencil. This suggests that the sketchbook already had the artwork in it when purchased, or that the sketchbook was bought with blank pages and someone subsequently added the artwork into it.
