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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner Inscription by Turner: ?Appointments c.1834-6

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 1 Verso:
Inscription by Turner: ?Appointments c.1834–6
D28791
Turner Bequest CCXCI b 1
Pencil on white wove paper, 101 x 77 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil (see main catalogue entry)
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘1’ top left, descending vertically
Inscribed in pencil ‘CCXCI(b)’ top right, descending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCXCI B’ towards top right, descending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCXCI(b) – 1’ top left, descending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
With the page turned vertically, Turner has scrawled three lines of notes; the transcription here closely follows Finberg’s,1 although even the little of it that he felt able to decipher remains uncertain:
Mrs [?Tratz] – 1
Mrs Ol[...]      3 [?o cl]
No 23 [...]
The final word is perhaps part of an address. The significance of the whole remains unclear, but may represent an afternoon’s appointments. Compare the even more obscure notes on folio 9 verso (D28800).
1
Finberg 1909, II, p.934.
Technical notes:
This page is the verso of the sketchbook’s marbled front free endpaper, and is unusual in being numbered as the first in Finberg’s sequence for this sketchbook, presumably following John Ruskin’s existing red ink inscription. Normally the recto of the first leaf is numbered as such, but presumably the marbling precluded that here. The edges are heavily stained owing to their proximity to the leather overlaps inside the front cover.

Matthew Imms
May 2014

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Inscription by Turner: ?Appointments c.1834–6 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, May 2014, 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-appointments-r1149021, accessed 29 March 2024.