John Riley Marsh Commonplace Book

Résumé du livre

This burgundy, leather-bound volume has gilt tooling, stamped border decorations, and a brass clasp with a key. The spine of the volume is stamped in gold with "Album." Contained inside the volume's gilt-edged leaves is the commonplace book kept by John Riley Marsh. On the endpaper verso is Marsh's signature and a stamp displaying his crest of a horse head atop a crown with Marsh's name below. It appears that the volume was written in 1829. The book consists of poems and songs with sentimental themes of love, chivalry, and remembrances. Some items have attributions followed by the date. Examples of items in the volume include "Stars" by Frederick Muller, "Meet me at sunset" by Alaric A. Watts, "Praise of love" by Ariosto, and "Tyrants and slaves" by William Kennedy. There is a song entitled "To the new year 1829" and an epigram by J. P. Meagher. Laid in the volume is a photograph of a cruise ship with passengers disembarking on shore. The handwritten poems and songs comprise the first twenty leaves of the volume; the remainder is blank. The watermark "John Hall 1828," appears throughout the volume.