A wonderfully evocative commonplace album filled throughout with original artwork, poetry, signatures and personal inscriptions, documenting friendships spanning more than three decades and culminating in an apparent farewell to an English couple leaving Argentina.

Bibliographic Details

Title: Commonplace Album of Original Artwork and Manuscript Entries.
Date: Approximately 1915–1950.
Origin: England and Argentina.
Contents: 55 album pages containing original artworks, manuscript entries and a central folding sheet of signatures.
Mediums: Watercolour, pencil, pen and ink, wash drawings, manuscript verse and inscriptions.
Binding: Contemporary black leather album.
Size: Approximately 22.5 × 18.5 cm.

Condition

Very Good. The album remains complete and appears to have been filled from beginning to end, with no evidence of removed leaves or excised artwork. A few pages remain intentionally blank, while several artworks are laid back-to-back on the same leaf. A well-preserved and highly attractive survival.

Please ask if you require a more detailed condition report, or examine the gallery images closely.

Description

A delightful and entirely unique commonplace album compiled with artworks spanning a period of approximately thirty-five years, bringing together an engaging mixture of original watercolours, pencil sketches, pen-and-ink drawings, manuscript poems, quotations, signatures and personal messages contributed by numerous friends and acquaintances. The entire volume, approx. 55 pages, are filled  with sketches, artworks and other original visual material, and these are mainly pasted to the recto of leaves (with versos left mainly blank). We have shown only a fraction of the material in the eBay gallery.

Unlike commercially produced autograph albums that often contain only brief signatures or verses, this example has evolved into a richly illustrated personal record. Almost every contributor has added something distinctive, whether a carefully executed landscape, humorous sketch, floral study, decorative design or handwritten sentiment, creating an album that is both visually attractive and deeply personal.

The entries span the years from around 1915 to 1950, allowing the volume to chart changing artistic styles and personal relationships across the First World War, the inter-war period and the years immediately following the Second World War. As a result, the album functions not simply as a collection of amateur artwork but as a social document recording decades of shared friendships and experiences.

Particularly intriguing is the album's apparent Anglo-Argentinian provenance. Numerous entries possess an Argentine connection, whether through language, subject matter, signatures or identifiable local references. The evidence strongly suggests that the volume belonged to an English couple living in Argentina before ultimately being presented to them as a farewell keepsake when they departed the country during the 1950s.

This historical context gives the album an added dimension. Britain maintained extensive commercial, financial and cultural ties with Argentina throughout the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, with substantial expatriate communities established in Buenos Aires and elsewhere. Albums such as this provide a rare glimpse into the personal lives, friendships and artistic pursuits of those communities, preserving memories that would otherwise have disappeared entirely.

Most of the contributions are signed, adding further individuality to the volume and offering considerable scope for future research into the artists and contributors. The variety of media—including original watercolours, pencil drawings, pen-and-ink sketches and manuscript entries—ensures that every page presents something new, making the album rewarding to browse as both an artistic and historical object.

At the centre is an attractive folding sheet of signatures, reinforcing the album's role as a collaborative record of friendships and shared experiences. Together with the many illustrations and inscriptions, it transforms the volume into a vivid snapshot of a social circle extending across continents during the first half of the twentieth century.

Albums of this nature are inherently unique. No two survive alike, and their appeal lies precisely in the individuality of the contributions they preserve. This example is especially desirable for its apparent Anglo-Argentinian associations, long chronological span and remarkable abundance of original artwork, offering collectors an engaging blend of social history, travel, expatriate life and amateur art.

Notes

A charming and substantial commonplace album preserving over three decades of original artistic and manuscript contributions. Particularly appealing for its apparent connection with the British expatriate community in Argentina and for the sheer variety of original artwork throughout.

Ideal for collectors of commonplace books, autograph albums, Anglo-Argentinian history, travel, social history and original works on paper.