Here’s a photograph album from 1904. It records what looks like An Awfully Big Adventure: the hand painted title reads ‘With Tent & Boat From Lewes to Littlehampton.’ The journey was made in September 1904 but unfortunately there are no captions or names underneath the photographs so I have not been able to trace the adventurers. However, I do know that there were two of them and a dog, and the rowing boat was called Viking. The first photograph must be alongside the river Ouse somewhere in Lewes. Later the lads camped beside the river, then in a disused quarry and finally on a sandy beach. I can report that they arrived safely in Littlehampton as the lighthouse features on the last page of the album. It would be interesting to recreate the journey!
I’m sharing this here for two reasons. Firstly, I love photograph albums and manuscripts and I always want to buy more of them. Secondly, it is the Lewes book fair on Saturday 14th of March. The Lewes fair has long been one of my favourite fairs and this Saturday’s will be a particularly good one because John Harrold will be signing copies of a new Rupert Storybook.
Finally, if you have any photograph albums to sell, please do get in touch. Once again I am low on stock so I urgently need to buy collections of old books, maps, ephemera, postcards or albums. In fact if it’s on paper please contact me by email at jeremy@antiquarianbookcompany.com or ring me on 07769 318895 – it’s worth a call, and you never know…
[divider_flat]Photograph Album, 1904. First edition. The title page is ink and watercolour.