Pusey House is home to the principal Anglo-Catholic library and archive in the UK. The House was founded in 1884 as a monument to the life and work of Dr Edward Bouverie Pusey (1800-1882), Professor of Hebrew at Oxford University and Canon of Christ Church Cathedral. This is an important set of correspondence between Dr Pusey and Francis Richard Wegg-Prosser. Wegg-Prosser (1824-1911) had been MP for Herefordshire from 1847, but had to step down on his conversion to the Roman Catholic Church in 1852. He later helped to re-found the Benedictine Monastic Community in England and built the pro-Cathedral for the diocese of Newport and Menevia. Their letters were exchanged in 1851, shortly before Wegg-Prosser’s conversion to Rome, and shed light on Pusey’s theological understanding of the place of Anglicanism in the wider Catholic Church.
Search FNL grants since 1931
Peterhouse acquired two lots at auction that derive from the collection of literary manuscripts assembled by Richard Monckton Milnes, 1st Baron Houghton (1809-1885), many of whose papers are now held by Trinity College, Cambridge. The manuscripts were written by the poet Thomas Gray (1716-1771), who studied at Peterhouse from 1734 and became a Fellow of the College. Each lot consists of original manuscript leaves which have been mounted for binding in a volume or scrapbook and subsequently disbound. Evidence from earlier foliation suggests that the two poems were originally bound sequentially early in one volume and the sets of reading notes were together as part of a second volume.
Before purchasing this book we had no books from the Library of George Folbury/Fowlbery (d. 1540), who was Master of Pembroke Hall, Cambridge, 1537-1540. The book’s provenance comes from Folbury’s ink inscription on the title ‘Su[m] liber G. folberij’ and signature ‘G. folberi’ below the publisher’s device on the final page. The book itself is a worthwhile acquisition. It has a fine London contemporary binding with Tudor binding rolls, numerous contemporary annotations and its distinctive title page was designed by Holbein; but it is the provenance that means it will become part of Pembroke’s historic collection.
Thomas Bewick (1753-1828) is well known for his illustrated books British Birds and Quadrupeds, but in his work as a professional engraver over a 50-year period he produced a wide range of material – book illustrations, bookplates and newspaper advertisements, as well as engraved silver, clock-faces etc. Interest continued in Bewick’s work through the 19th century and up to the present day, his work being republished, sometimes pirated, collected and studied by bibliophiles. Thirty-four years after his death his daughter saw his autobiography (the Memoir) through the press. To cater for the ‘Bewick collectors’, Jane Bewick prepared ten copies of the Memoir that were interleaved with blank pages, on to which she pasted proof impressions taken in Bewick’s workshop, also copying out poems and accolades to her father.
Formerly displayed in the bar of a public house in the Cotswolds, this parchment pedigree of a prominent Welsh Elizabethan merchant was purchased privately by the National Library of Wales in March 2017, with the aid of a grant of £7,500 fro
John Napier, of Merchiston (1550-1617), A Plaine Discovery of the whole Revelation of Saint Iohn: set downe in two treatises. Edinburgh: printed by Robert Walde-grave, printer to the Kings Majestie. 1593; and James VI, King of Scotland, 15 in forme of ane sermone.
With the generous assistance of the Friends of the National Libraries, the National Gallery Research Centre has been able to acquire a small but significant collection of papers relating to the sale of the art collection of the Duc de Berry. The archive consists of a complete inventory of the 118 Berry paintings; a list of the costs of packing, shipping and insuring the collection; and a list of the 21 paintings which were sold, recording the buyers’ names.
This large collection of mountaineering and climbing books is from the estate of Nat Allen, a founder member of the Rock and Ice climbing club. Amongst the collection are a scrapbook and selection of black and white photographs and 35mm slides.
The Monson Papers, an ‘indispensable record of British national life’, has been purchased and incorporated into the collections of Lincolnshire Archives. This extensive archive contains artworks, letters and travel papers spanning around 700 years. The core collection dates from 1221 to 1947 and comprises the estate archive of the Monson family, the Barons Monson of Burton by Lincoln, together with family and personal records and antiquarian papers. The collection also contains important records of domestic life, with everything from receipts for furniture and paintings to family recipes. These records provide a fascinating insight into the everyday lives of people in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Martin Parr is a British photographer, photo-journalist, artist and curator with an international reputation.