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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > George IV’s visit to Edinburgh 1822 > King's Visit to Edinburgh Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Details of Highland Dress 1822

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Details of Highland Dress’ 1822
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 45 Recto:
Details of Highland Dress 1822
D17581
Turner Bequest CC 45
Pencil on white wove paper, 114 x 187 mm
Inscriptions in pencil by Turner across the page
Inscribed in red ink by John Ruskin ‘45’ (very faint) top left inverted
Stamped in black ‘CC 45’ top left inverted
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The sketches and notes of items of highland dress on this and the opposite page (folio 44 verso; D17580), made with the sketchbook inverted, relate to the costumes worn by gentlemen at the Peers’ Ball on 23 August 1822. Turner’s notes on this page read as follows.
     black 
All [?]pink [...] all blue 
     yellow     purple     Dirk 
Red Blue Blue [?]velum [...] arms 
The Headress being of the most common 
     Silver       [?]Ermine [or ‘crimson’] hue Gold Deer 
                                   Horn 
 
[?]Embossed [...] kirk 
S Bairne ==  [?]Ruff H[...] behind 
Red crimson [?]jacket studded with      [?]Gloveless Ball 
Silver nails                      White sash 
                             White buttons on the [?]jackets 
This page is given over mainly to sketches that catalogue the diversity of costume, with eight different hats, three shields, two dirks (daggers), and three belts. There is also at the left what may be the handle of a sword, a spear or perhaps a finial-type decoration in the Assembly Rooms where the ball was held, and at the right what may be another decoration or part of a costume.
The inscriptions, some of which remain indecipherable, mainly refer to specific sketches and provide additional information about them, principally their colour. Examples of other longer descriptions are: ‘The headdress of the most common ermine [or crimson hue]’, ‘red crimson [?]jacket studded with silver nails’ and ‘white buttons on the [?]jackets’.
For more information on highland costume see folio 44 verso.

Thomas Ardill
October 2008

How to cite

Thomas Ardill, ‘Details of Highland Dress 1822 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, October 2008, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2012, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-details-of-highland-dress-r1132922, accessed 24 April 2024.