J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1830-35 Annual tourist > Midlands 1830 > Birmingham and Coventry Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Inscriptions by Turner: Accounts 1830

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Inscriptions by Turner: Accounts’ 1830
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 1 Recto:
Inscriptions by Turner: Accounts 1830
D22323
Turner Bequest CCXL 1
Inscribed by Turner in pencil and ink with figures and dates (see main catalogue entry) on white wove paper, 68 x 110 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘1’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCXL – 1’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
With the page turned vertically, Turner has inscribed the following in ink:
Ex. 2699 –         1000
         454
             5             600
             6    200
       1428
             9
           30   100     400
             1
             30 Sept. 30
Note.        401          £100 m[...]
                       23 July
At right angles to this along the top of the page is the following in ink:
4228   .    .      9,    10.
    18 of Sept 1830
Along the bottom edge is the following in pencil:
14823 –            20    [...]      Augst [sic]
    228 –            13 July – 300
As Finberg notes,1 some of these figures also appear in a rather blotchy ink inscription inside the front cover of the Arundel and Shoreham sketchbook, in use at about the same time (Tate D41062; Turner Bequest CCXLV):
14823   ,       20       [?19 Augt]
401–           100           23 Augt
228             300       [?13] July
The significance of the figures is unclear, but presumably they relate to transactions and balances in the summer and autumn of 1830. There are further financial notes inside the front cover opposite (D41056), and on folios 3 recto, 4 recto, 5 recto, 6 recto, 8 recto and 9 recto (D22327, D22329, D22331, D22332, D22334, D22335); those from D22427 onwards each comprise two or three lines, setting out payment dates, rates and holdings of different types of long-term investments.2

Matthew Imms
August 2013

1
Finberg 1909, II, pp.737, 747.
2
For Turner’s finances in general, see N.R.D. Powell, ‘Finance and Property’ in Evelyn Joll, Martin Butlin and Luke Herrmann (eds.), The Oxford Companion to J.M.W. Turner, Oxford 2001, pp.107–8.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Inscriptions by Turner: Accounts 1830 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, August 2013, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, September 2014, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-inscriptions-by-turner-accounts-r1148473, accessed 20 April 2024.