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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > Liber Studiorum notes c.1807-19 > Finance Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Inscription by Turner: Prices of Building Materials c.1808-12

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Inscription by Turner: Prices of Building Materials’ c.1808-12
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 44 Recto:
Inscription by Turner: Prices of Building Materials c.1808–12
D08354
Turner Bequest CXXII 44
Pen and ink on white wove paper, 112 x 69 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pen and ink (see main catalogue entry)
Part watermark ‘P | 01’
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘44’ top right, ascending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CXXII – 44’ top right, ascending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
With the page turned vertically, the following is inscribed in the upper third:
Brick Earth of 6 feet Deep | is worth 200L per acre | – [?1] yard [‘square’ inserted above] of gravel 2 feet deep | 1 Load
Finberg reads the first figure of the third line as ‘5’ rather than the ‘1’ it appears to be. These isolated notes on building materials may relate to the construction of Turner’s own house in Twickenham; see the present author’s section ‘Sandycombe Lodge c.1808–12’, the dates applied here to the present page. There are prices for brickwork in the Sandycombe and Yorkshire sketchbook (Tate D08967; Turner Bequest CXXVII 3).
Technical notes:
The outer edges of the page are heavily stained from proximity to the leather overlaps under the paste-down inside the back cover (D40901). The final figure of the watermark appears to be a ‘1’ but might possibly be a ‘4’ (see the Introduction to the sketchbook).

Matthew Imms
September 2013

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Inscription by Turner: Prices of Building Materials c.1808–12 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, September 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-inscription-by-turner-prices-of-building-materials-r1147832, accessed 25 April 2024.