Manuscripts

Album of pressed seaweed and sea moss specimens

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Description: A Victorian album of seaweed and sea moss specimens gathered by an unidentified female collector in England. The album consists of 80 pressed specimens of red, green, and brown seaweed and sea mosses, some of which are artfully arranged into crosses, a laurel wreath, an anchor, and the word "love." Tipped onto the first blank page is an eight-line manuscript poem adapted from "Flowers of the Sea." The album is bound in contemporary roan, with spine compartments tooled in gilt, the front cover lettered "Sea Mosses" in gilt and handmade textured endpapers printed with crescent moons in red and accented with gilt stars.
Type: Manuscripts(Opens in new tab)
Production date: approximately 1850.
Call number: mssHM 84529
Provenance: Purchased from Peter Harrington London, March 2026.

G. E. Dyke-Poore seaweed specimen album

Manuscripts

A Victorian album of seaweed and algae specimens collected and preserved by G. E. Dyke-Poore. The album contains twenty-three seaweed specimens mounted on cards and then mounted on pages bound in the album; there are also four additional specimens mounted onto loose pages laid into the back of the album. The specimens are carefully pressed onto each card and labeled with their Latin names; the specimens seem to have been gathered in Jersey, with one specimen from The Heads, Tasmania. The album is bound in contemporary pink and gilt illustrated paper covers (possibly homemade), with the remainder of green silk ties. Mounted onto the verso of the front cover is a little green card which says "Collected, Arranged, and Mounted by Miss G. E. Dyke-Poore, Jersey" and there is also a short poem inscribed by Miss Dyke-Poore at the beginning of the album.

mssHM 84128

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British Seaweeds

Manuscripts

A Victorian volume of seaweed and algae specimens gathered by an unidentified collector from the southern coast of England. The twelve specimens are mounted on cards and then on pages bound into the volume. The specimens are carefully pressed and labeled with their Latin names and where they were found, including the Isle of Wight, Devon, and Cornwall. The volume is contemporary half calf over pebbled cloth with the title stamped in gilt on the front cover.

mssHM 84127

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Alice Flood seaweed album

Manuscripts

A collection of sixty-eight seaweed, algae, and bryozoan samples, many of which have culinary uses; the majority of the samples are labeled with both common English names and Latin names. The majority of the samples were collected along the English coast, but two samples have a given location of "Point de Galles" in Sri Lanka. Each sample is attached to the paper with tiny stitches of thread; the leaves are loose and housed in a contemporary green cloth drop-sided box. The box also contains a poem on the recto of one folded leaf about the beauty of seaweed. The seaweed samples are extremely fragile and must be handled with care.

mssHM 84138

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Album of drawings depicting a tobacco factory in Spain

Manuscripts

An album of 15 watercolored drawings featuring stages of processing the tobacco plant into powdered tobacco, or snuff, within an eighteenth-century industrial complex, most likely the Royal Tobacco Factory at Seville. The album is bound in green morocco leather and stamped in gilt with the arms of the King of Spain, Charles III. Each drawing is captioned.

mssHM 84085

Mary Parker, Countess of Macclesfield, botanical album, 1756-1767

Manuscripts

A botanical album created by Mary Parker, Countess of Macclesfield; she started the album in 1756 when she was 30 years of age. Flower painting had become a fashionable occupation for the wives and daughters of the great houses of England and Mary Parker achieved exceptional ability under the tutelage of Georg Ehret. The album contains 48 watercolor and gouache paintings on parchment; depicted are both sides of the plant's leaves and also shown are more than one reproductive stage for each specimen: with the early formation of the blossom, the growing petals, and the full expression of the flower. The images in the album depict numerous plant specimens, sometimes with butterflies and other insects, most likely local to the Macclesfield estate, Shirburn Castle, in Oxfordshire. Many of the illustrations are identified by names predating Carl Linnaeus' binomial plant nomenclature in his "Species Plantarum" (1753), while other notations on the illustrations include Linnaeus' names. The album is bound in a contemporary, richly gilt morocco wallet binding, with interior green silk ties; the binding is likely by Richard Montagu. The pages in the album are marked with the Macclesfield armorial blind stamp. It has a lock and key fastening, and while the original key is present, the lock has been deactivated by a professional restorer, please do not attempt to use the key; also present is a red velvet bookmark.

mssHM 84100

Lady Elizabeth Parker Fane botanical album 1765-1767

Manuscripts

A botanical album created by Lady Elizabeth Parker Fane; she started painting the illustrations in this album in 1765 which means she was just 14 years old when she began. Flower painting had become a fashionable occupation for the wives and daughters of the great houses of England and Elizabeth Parker Fane achieved exceptional ability under the tutelage of Georg Ehret. The album contains 25 watercolor and gouache paintings on parchment; depicted are both sides of the plant's leaves and also shown are more than one reproductive stage for each specimen: with the early formation of the blossom, the growing petals, and the full expression of the flower. The images in the album depict numerous plant specimens, sometimes with butterflies and other insects, most likely local to the Macclesfield estate, Shirburn Castle, in Oxfordshire. Only a small number of the paintings contain titles, though a few are dated by the artist. The 25 paintings are laid into the volume and the remaining pages are blank. The album is bound in a contemporary, richly gilt morocco wallet binding, with a green silk chemise to wrap top and lower edges; the binding was done by an unidentified binder. The album has a lock and key fastening, though the lock has been deactivated, the key is kept with the companion volume mssHM 84100.

mssHM 84101

Album of pressed seaweed and sea moss specimens

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G. E. Dyke-Poore seaweed specimen album

British Seaweeds

Alice Flood seaweed album

Album of drawings depicting a tobacco factory in Spain

Mary Parker, Countess of Macclesfield, botanical album, 1756-1767

Lady Elizabeth Parker Fane botanical album 1765-1767