#MC1
1862
Oblong Duodecimo (ca. 9,5x13 cm). 37 leaves. Thirty-six watercolour views, including one double-page. All watercolours captioned and dated in ink on verso of the leaves. Artist’s signature on the first pastedown "Bertha Gope. July 8th/ 62." Period black gilt tooled quarter sheep with brown cloth boards and a label of the album maker “G. Rowney & Co. London” on the first pastedown. Binding rubbed and loose on hinges, with a tear on the bottom of the front hinge, four needle holes on the upper corner of the front board, otherwise a very good album.
Attractive miniature sketchbook by a skilled amateur artist, with thirty-six watercolour views of North Wales, opening with a beautiful double-page panorama of Bangor harbour. There are another twelve views of Bangor in the sketchbook, showing boats in the waters of Menai Strait, shores of the Anglesea Island in distance or stone walls of Pernhyn Castle. Nine sketches depict the small village of Aber (Gwynedd), ten km east of Bangor, with a view of the Aber Falls; seven sketches are dedicated to Llanberis, a village at the foot of Snowdon, including views of the Lake Llyn Padarn, a part of Snowdon and “Capel Curig from Llanberis Pass”. There are also two views of the Menai Bridge and a sketch of the Gorad Goch island showing the original box sections of the Britannia Bridge over the Menai Strait (built in 1852 and reconstructed in the 1970s). Overall a nice keepsake from a summer travel across North Wales.
The region of North Wales “is steeped in history and was for almost a millennium known as the Kingdom of Gwynedd. The mountainous stronghold of Snowdonia formed the nucleus of that realm and would become the last redoubt of independent Wales - only overcome in 1283. To this day it remains a stronghold of the Welsh language and a centre for Welsh national and cultural identity” (Wikipedia).
