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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > Tour of Yorkshire 1816 > Yorkshire 2 Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Three Thumbnail Sketches of the Crook of Lune Quarry, Ingleborough from Heysham, and the Langdale Pikes; the Printed Trade Label of Mills & Sons, Booksellers of Oxford Street 1816

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Three Thumbnail Sketches of the Crook of Lune Quarry, Ingleborough from Heysham, and the Langdale Pikes; the Printed Trade Label of Mills & Sons, Booksellers of Oxford Street’ 1816 (Inside back cover of sketchbook)
Inside back cover of sketchbook
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Inside Back Cover:
Three Thumbnail Sketches of the Crook of Lune Quarry, Ingleborough from Heysham, and the Langdale Pikes; the Printed Trade Label of Mills & Sons, Booksellers of Oxford Street 1816
D40845
Pencil on white wove paper, 154 x 96 mm
With a trade label printed on white laid paper with printed text beginning ‘Mills & Sons’ (see main catalogue entry)
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Inglbro fr Haysham’ top left, ‘L Dale Pikes’ top right, and ‘Crook of Lune Quarry’ bottom left, ascending vertically
Inscribed by unknown hand in pencil with Turner Bequest number ‘CXLV’ top left and stamped in black ‘CXLV’ top centre
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The page carries three quick jottings of details. The sketch of Ingleborough relates most closely to a sketch of Lancaster from the south-west on folio 76 verso (D11156), which has a note of Ingleborough being visible at the far right.
The sketch of the Langdale Pikes is a little problematic. The only distant view of this profile of Pike O’Stickle and Harrison Stickle is from the south-east, the most celebrated view being that from the Lowood Hotel on Windermere. Turner’s route in 1816 did, not, however take him to, or indeed anywhere near, Lowood. The nearest he came was in journeying towards Kent Head (see the Yorkshire 4 sketchbook, Tate D11497; Turner Bequest CXLVII 34a). His route there took him through Staveley and it is possible that he obtained a glimpse of the Langdale Pikes from thereabouts. (There is a potential viewpoint with the Pikes some twenty-three kilometres distant, near Plantation Bridge on the road between Staveley and Kendal.)
The sketch of Crook of Lune Quarry records a lifting tripod, and possibly the same tripod appears in a view of the Lune valley from the quarry in the Yorkshire 4 book (Tate D11499; Turner Bequest CXLVII 35a), which accompanied him on the same tour.
The full text of the bookseller’s label reads:
Mills & Son | BOOKSELLERS, STATIONERS & BINDERS, | No.368 | OXFORD STREET, near the PANTHEON. | Stationary Wares Wholesale & Retail on low terms | for ready Money. | Account Books Bound & Ruled in an improved manner. | No Charge for Ruling. | The greatest variety of Bath, Note & Letter Papers, | so much esteemed for their cheapness & good qualities. | ENGRAVING & PRINTING.
The same bookseller’s label, with different wording in the ninth and tenth lines, occurs in the Woodcock Shooting sketchbook, used around 1812–13 (Tate; Turner Bequest CXXIX, inside back cover).

David Hill
April 2009

How to cite

David Hill, ‘Three Thumbnail Sketches of the Crook of Lune Quarry, Ingleborough from Heysham, and the Langdale Pikes; the Printed Trade Label of Mills & Sons, Booksellers of Oxford Street 1816 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, April 2009, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, March 2023, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-three-thumbnail-sketches-of-the-crook-of-lune-quarry-r1201958, accessed 03 April 2026.