[Charles Edward Fewster of Hull.] Scrapbook containing chromolithograph leaves from the Sermon on the Mount, 'Illuminated by Owen Jones', and other material including a long manuscript letter on 'Japanesque stationery' by Charles Goodall & Son.

A cultured man (an authority on numismatics), Fewster worked for the family firm of Thomas Fewster of Hull, paint, colour and varnish manufacturers. The present item is an attractive example of his professional interest in the developments in late nineteenth-century design (another is his collection of the designs of Christopher Dresser, in two albums, is now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London). It is a small 4to (21 x 17 cm) album of green cloth, with embossed design of birds and foliage around the words 'Scrap Album' on front cover, and printed illustrated title by Marcus Ward & Co. (The rear pastedown carries the firms ticket.) Both album and its contents are in very good condition, with light signs of age. Fewster's bookplate and library label are on front pastedown. The contents begin with four items which the context indicates are by Chas Goodall & Son. The first is a 12mo leaf carrying a full-page advertisement for 'Kiku' and 'Mume' Japanese paper, printed in silver on light blue, and with an oriental decorative border. This is followed by three leaves of white paper with oriental floral designs on one side, the first 35 x 11 cm (the first a stylised pattern printed in gold, and the second depicting small flowers on a long bough, printed in silver), and the third, 17.5 x 22.5 cm, in silver. The manuscript letter (2pp., landscape 12mo) follows, signed by 'Chas Goodall & Son'. Written in a neat, attractive hand, it begins: 'Dear Sir | We are very glad to reply to your enquiry respecting "Japanesque" stationery. As you are probably aware there is no nation which produces such an infinite variety of paper as the Japanese and they have hitherto stood alone in the use of a characteristically decorated paper for the purpose of communication one to another. The "Japanesque" stationery is based on a study of these Japanese papers many of which have a special symbolism and meaning, altogether independent of the correspondence for which they are the vehicle, and the peculiarity we have preserved, thus in the "Mume" & "Kiku" patterns congratulation and social joyousness are conveyed, hence these patterns are especially adapted for correspondence from friend to friend'. The letter continues with a discussion of the symbolism of the 'Bamboo' and 'Dead Willow' patterns. The letter is followed by an 11.5 x 8.5 cm card, laid down, with eight label designs in colour, each with birds and foliage surrounding a religious text ('BE ye followers of GOD', 'YE must be born again', 'NOW is the day of salvation' and so on). Next comes the laid-down title of 'Little Ella and the Fire King and other Fairy Tales | With Illustrations by Henry Warren' (Edinburgh: Edmonston and Douglas, 1861), with its beautiful design printed in colours. This is followed by fourteen leaves from 'The Sermon on the Mount' ([London:] Longman & Co, 1844), 'Illuminated by Owen Jones', with each leaf tipped-in onto a leaf of the album by a strip of tissue tape, thus enabling examination of both sides. Jones's work is one of the high points of Victorian printing, and these examples (28pp. of the book's 32pp.) are taken from the unrevised first edition. The last item in the album is an 11.5 x 7.5 cm reversed print on India paper of Durer's 1512 depiction of a peasant man and woman at market.