713. The Condition of a Book

There are professional guides to the terminology of the condition of a book. An online example of this is ‘A Guide to Used Book Conditions’ [on the website of Abebooks].  

The fact is that second-hand books are often not ‘As New’, ‘Fine’ or ‘Near Fine’. The condition of a hundred-year-old book often does not even meet the criteria 'Very Good', 'Good' or 'Fair'. We descend into the depths and cellars of the book supply, where no treasures can be found and books are described as 'Poor' - meaning: 'A heavily worn book whose primary value is its complete, legible text. May have loose joints, hinges, or pages, and may be soiled, scuffed, stained, or spotted' - or not described at all. Even then, there is a term: in such cases the seller may resort to the phrase 'As Described'. However, usually a bad condition is not mentioned as photographs are said to be part of the description.

Books may be bowed, chipped, dampstained, darkened, faded, edgeworn, foxed, loose, re-cased, shaken, sunned, trimmed, or there may be worm holes or worse.

Three recent examples found on e-Bay may illustrate such conditions. 

Charles Ricketts's Titian is not a rare book at all, and may be found in good condition. This, however, is a copy that I would not even like to touch.

Charles Ricketts, Titian (1910)

Even a deluxe edition can be stored or left in the wrong places - damp sheds and attics, musty basements, above the central heating, in forgotten moving boxes or on garden tables in the rain. Here are two examples of G.B. Shaw's Saint Joan (1926), illustrated and with a cover designed by Ricketts. The edition was 750 copies.

G.B. Shaw, Charles Ricketts  Saint Joan (1926)

The condition of the Shaw books are described as:

The book is in a used condition, the pages are clean, some have a stain on the bottom, the sketches are in good condition, two of the corners are slightly folded and one has a piece coming away (please see all photos).
The Paper cover is in a used condition and is fragile (please see all photos).

and:

Spine largely detached and partially lacking, thus a fair only copy (internally fine) lacking the dustwrapper

E-bay prices were c. $160 and $430 respectively. Better copies may be found for less.

712. More Spelling Questions

Although Charles Ricketts was born in Switzerland of both English and Italian descent, and partly raised and educated in France, he apparently never wrote a single letter in a language other than English. (However, he published an article about Charles Shannon in French). 

Charles Ricketts, 'Charles Shannon', L'Art et les Artistes
(février 1910)

His letters to French, Italian, German, Belgian and Dutch friends, curators, dealers and others were all composed in English, which raises the question: how many languages did he actually speak? 

In a letter to his old friend Sydney Cockerell (January 1912), he said to follow

[...]  German & Italian lessons [...] 

[BL Add MS 52746, f 63]

Later, a musical friend of his, Muriel Lee Mathews, was told:

Nice of you to like my article. I have tried to translate it in Italian as I wrote it, many sentences will be better in the other language I believe.

[Letter of 4 August 1919. Typed transcription, BL Add MS 61718, ff 278-80]

However, his Italian articles were most probably translated by the Italian Antonio Cippico, as may be deducted from several letters, including one to his Dutch friend Richard Roland Holst (about 20 April 1920):

Do you read Italian? If so, I will send you my articles on Greece which are being written to be translated into that tongue [...] 
[Typed transcription, BL Add MS 61719, ff 6-8]

Charles Ricketts, 'Lettere inglesi', La Ronda (settembre 1919)

Another letter refers to his 'thinking in French', although he never wrote a letter in French:

Pardon spelling & punctuation. I have been talking & thinking in French and dont know if some of this makes sense.

[Letter to Cecil French, 12 July 1927. Houghton MS Eng 1738]

Even French spelling was beyond his capabilities, as he demonstrated in a letter to Charles Shannon from 19-21 October 1927:

[...] it is before bed time I join in drinking a light champeign [champagne] which I would not do were I by myself.

[BL Add MS 58085, ff 87-8]

He could write faultless letters, but would continue to pretend that this was not the case. In a letter to Robert Ross from 1911 he included a post scriptum:

PS

Why scold me for using two g’s in exagerate, these small imperfections secure my popularity, too perfect I should be a subject for controversy.

[BL Add MS 81717]

In whatever language he thought, as a letter writer, he regularly tried out maxims and remarks that could have flowed from the pen of Oscar Wilde.

711. From the Library of John Le Carré

David Cornwell - better known as John le Carré - died five years ago; his library is now for sale at Maggs in London: John le Carré. Books from The Library of Jane and David Cornwell at Tregiffian (in Cornwall). Le Carré, best known for his espionage novels such as The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1963), was an admirer of Graham Greene and John Grisham, but avoided to read too many contemporary novels. His library contains dedication copies of works by Joseph Brodsky (written just after he learned that he had been awarded the Nobel Prize), Philip Roth ('For David- author of a perfect novel') and others.

Charles Ricketts, illustration for
The Passionate Pilgrim. Songs in Shakespeare's Plays (1896)

Cornwell/Le Carré was not a bibliophile, but surprisingly his library contains a Vale Press publication: The Passionate Pilgrim. Songs in Shakespeare's Plays (1896). It is bound for Bumpus in 'green hard grain morocco', 'covers decorated with a border of heart tools, smooth spine lettered in gilt with large and small heart tools, endpaper turn-ins decorated with hearts’. 

There is also a gift inscription: 'For darling Enid with love from Molly Christmas 1920'. 

The identities of Enid and Molly remain obscure.

710. Growing Michael Field Scholarship

During the Great War, Charles Ricketts predicted that in the distant future, the poems of Michael Field (Katharine Bradley and Edith Cooper) would attract more readers than in their own time. He made this prediction in a letter to Sydney Cockerell, who was at the time the director of the Fitzwilliam Museum, where part of their legacy had found its way.

Works and Days. Extracts from the Journals of Michael Field (1933)

In a letter dated 6 June 1917, Ricketts wrote:

[...] believe me, when we all come into our own, Michael Field will be remembered when the Thompsons, Addington Symon[d]s etc are forgotten.
[British Library Add MS 52746, f 101]

Although Francis Thompson (1859-1907) made the newspapers ten years ago when the building where he lived between 1864 and 1885 - marked with a blue plaque - collapsed, no monographs on his work have been published in the last half century.

Poet and literary critic John Addington Symonds (1840-1893) is best remembered for his book The Renaissance in Italy (1875-1886) and has made a regular reappearance as an early advocate of homosexuality. Following a biography in 1964, his memoirs were published in 1986 and a critical edition appeared in 2016, while a recent study, The Passions of John Addington Symonds by Shane Butler, was made public in 2022.

However, a stack of no fewer than fifteen books about Michael Field have appeared since the end of the last century, not counting the dozens of articles.

It did take a while before academic interest in Michael Field blossomed. A study by Mary Sturgeon (Michael Field, 1922) and a selection from the diaries (Works and Days, 1933) were not immediately followed by a stream of publications about the two women. In the 1970s Paul Delaney published selections from Ricketts's letters to Michael Field. At the end of the twentieth century, the studies on Michael Field gained momentum, thanks in part to the efforts of three individual researchers: Ivor Treby, Emma Donoghue and Marion Twain.

Treby published his archival overview The Michael Field Catalogue in 1998, while Donoghue wrote a concise biography: We Are Michael Field.

Treby then produced a series of collections of Field's poems: A Shorter Shīrazād: 101 poems of Michael Field (1999), Music and Silence (2000) and Uncertain Rain (2002). A third researcher, Marion Thain, published a brief biography and study of the poems: Michael Field and Poetic Identity (2000). Thain became the consultant editor of Michael Field and Fin-de-Siècle Culture and Society. The Journals, 1868-1914, and Correspondence of Katherine Bradley and Edith Cooper from the British Library, London (Add. Mss 46776-46804, 45851-45856 & 46866-46897). A Listing and Guide to the Microfilm Collection (2003). The publication was, of course, a response to the generally felt need for broad access to the manuscripts to facilitate further research. 

A fresh selection of 'leaves from the journal and letters of Michael Field' was published by Treby in 2006: Binary Star. Thain continued her research with the monograph Poetry, Aestheticism and the Fin de Siècle (2007), a discussion of four of Michael Field's books of poetry.

A selection of books about Michael Field (1998-2024)

After that, the field of research was opened up and publications appeared comprising letter and diary editions and discussions of the works:

• Michael Field and Their World, edited by Margaret D. Stetz and Cheryl A. Wilson (2007): 23 essays;
• The Fowl and the Pussycat. The Letters of Michael Field, 1876-1909, edited by Sharon Bickle (2008): a first scholarly of the correspondence of Bradley and Cooper;
• Michael Field, The Poet. Published and Manuscript Materials, edited by Marion Twain and Ana Parejo Vadillo (2009): a collection of poems, diaries and letters.
• Michael Field. Decadent Moderns, edited by Sarah Parker and Ana Parego Vadillo (2019): 11 essays;
• Michael Field, For That Moment Only and Other Prose Works, edited by Alex Murray and Sarah Parker: first publication of Field's stories and short prose;
• Carolyn Dever, Chains of Love and Beauty. The Diary of Michael Field (2022): an in-depth study of the diaries;
• Jill Ehnenn, Michael Field's Revisionary Poetics (2023);
• One Soul We Divided. A Critical Edition of the Diary of Michael Field, edited by Carolyn Dever (2024)

Meanwhile, under the direction of Marion Thain, an online transcription of the Michael Field diaries is in progress, accompanied by images of the original handwritten pages, since 2021 hosted by Dartmouth University: The Diaries of Michael Field.

709. Barry Humphries ("Dame Edna")'s Collection (Sequel)

Following the high-profile auction of The Personal Collection of Barry Humphries at Christie's - see blog 703. Barry Humphries ("Dame Edna")'s Collection - Forum Books in London announces the sale of The Library of Barry Humphries in a series of auctions starting on 26 March.

Preview of The Library of Barry Humphries (Forum Auctions, image dd 2 March 2025)

The catalogue is not yet available online, but a preview is provided and from certain items one is referred to similar lots, which apparently will also be in the catalogue (but are not part of the preview). For example, the edition of R.M. Rilke's Duineser Elegien in English (Cranach Presse, 1931) mentions, at the bottom of the page, some 'related lots', quite randomly however. On my first reading of the page on Duino Elegies, I was referred to three works, one of which was Daphnis and Chloe by Ricketts and Shannon - in addition to two other editions (a Gregynog edition and a German private press edition) - the second time I was shown Daphnis and Chloe as well as Hero and Leander (in addition to the same German private press edition) and these lucky coincidences never seemed to repeat themselves in the same constellation, sometimes showing no Ricketts material at all but works by the Whittington Press or Editions Narcisse, and every now and then the Duino Elegies itself can be found among the ‘related lots’. 

Preview of The Library of Barry Humphries (Forum Auctions, image dd 2 March 2025)

It is an effective way to tempt you to keep searching through the collection without ever knowing whether you have seen all the interesting objects.

By occasionally viewing the preview again, one is also presented with different selections. For example, a copy of Silverpoints by John Gray popped up, a copy of the ‘regular’ edition, but with a nice attachment and provenance.

Letter from John Gray to Elkin Mathews
about Silverpoints
(Forum Auctions, March 2025)

This copy has the bookplates of Thomas Hutchison and the pre-Raphaelite collector William E. Fredeman, and, tipped in, a note by John Gray about the proofs:

This is the way these pages should be arranged - as I have numbered them - according to Mr. Ricketts. So now Mr. Leighton can proceed with the binding.

Going back and forth through the listed items I stumbled upon some other Ricketts related items, such as one of fifty large-paper copies of J.A. Symonds's In the Key of Blue and Other Prose Essays (1893) with an ink gift inscription dated January 1893, in the vellum cover designed by Ricketts, and another copy of Silverpoints (no. 219/250), a variant on Spalding paper.

708. Charles Ricketts's Spelling Skills

Ricketts never seems to have received regular education in the English language - he did, after all, spend part of his youth in France - and as a result, his spelling of English words was often fanciful.

He often misspelled words (including names) and was aware of this. In many letters he acknowledged that he didn't know how a certain word should be written. Below are just a few examples. 

Arum flower

In a letter from 1894, Ricketts wrote to Michael Field (Katharine Bradley and Edith Cooper) that he and Charles Shannon disagreed about the spelling of the name of a flower:

We had covered our table with apples and arums (the artists are quarrelling as to how this word is spelt). It is a white flower like a twist of paper with a yellow stick inside.
(British Library Add MS 58087, f 11)

In an 1898 letter to the same, he toyed with his incorrect spellings:

I hope I have spelt Theodor[e] Watts Dunton’s name all wrong.

(BL Add MS 58087, ff 108-10)

He also used his faulty spelling to express opinions, for example about a dog. A year later, in another letter, he wrote:

I hope I’ve spelt Basset wrong.
(BL Add MS 58087, ff 126-8)

Three years later, Bradley read a letter about archaeology:

I hope my spelling is not worse than ever, I feel every other word is wrong but dare not corect correct.
(BL Add MS 58087, ff 196-8)

In a letter to Laurence Binyon (1905) he ascribed a painting to an Italian painter:

to be ascribed to Jacob P papa Bellini – I dont know how to spell Jacob.

(BL Loan MS 103 10/1)

The announcement of a wrong spelling, followed by the correct spelling occurs repeatedly, for example in a letter to Robert Ross from February 1916.

I wrote pounds because, for the moment, I did not know how to spell guineas. 

(BL Add MS 81717)

In many cases, he did not correct himself because he did not see the errors - he consistently added an acute accent to the spelling of Degas: 'Dégas'. In other cases he really did not know how a (for example medical) term should be spelled. In 1918 he wrote to W.B. Yeats:

For the last five days or so I have been put to bed and visited by a Doctor having had – I still have – a bad touch of Laryngitis which wanted to develop into Neumonia something which I cant spell, [p]neumonia.

(Stony Brook, W.B. Yeats Collection, SC 294, Box 51)

In a letter to Cecil French from 1927 he offers a general excuse:

Pardon spelling & punctuation. I have been talking & thinking in French and dont know if some of this makes sense.

(Houghton Library MS Eng 1738)

Although he continued to make one spelling mistake after another in later years, it seems that he no longer cared and rarely apologised for them.

707. The Chairs in The Vale

On 6 June 1894, Charles Ricketts wrote a post card to the Belgian artist Théo van Rysselberghe, who had come to visit The Vale on his trip to London - see blog 181: Théo van Rysselberghe meets Ricketts and Shannon. 

The Vale was not a richly furnished place. Paul Delaney in his 1990 biography stated that there was 'scrubbed wood furniture' and Stephen Calloway (The Journal of The Decorative Arts Society 1890-1940, No. 8, 1984) wrote about the unpretentious parlour that contained 'a pair of simple wooden cottage armchairs of a type costing about five or ten shillings only'.

A chair in the Vale, c.1889

In his 1894 letter, Ricketts wrote that the chairs were 'ordinary high-backed kitchen chairs but unvarnished', the cost being  '6 shillings'. Ricketts and Shannon bought them 'at a little shop at the entrance to The Vale itself [.] The name of the man is Brown'.

By consulting the address book, we can determine who this Brown person could be. The Post Office London Directory for 1895… [Part 2: Street Directory]. London: Kelly & Co. Limited, [1894], p. 464) lists the inhabitants of The Vale Press as part of the listing for King's Road (North Side).

The Post Office London Directory for 1895… [1894], p. 464

Adjacent to the entrance to the small Vale territory are listed two dealers with the name Brown, possibly wife and husband:

Mrs Elizabeth Brown, furniture dealer at 326 King’s Road,
and
Percy Ernst Brown, mail cart manufacturer at number 328

It seems highly likely is that the 'man' P. E. Brown made the chairs which were sold to Ricketts and Shannon by Elizabeth Brown. They could easily carry them home.

706. Hokusai in the Ricketts and Shannon Collection

This guest blog has been written by Mariko Hirabayashi, an independent art historian from Japan, who, in 2023, earned PhD in History of Art. Her 2022 thesis, Charles Ricketts and Japan. British Japonisme of the Second Generation from the 1880s to the 1930s, is a well informed study of the relations between Ricketts and Japan and highlights several new discoveries. Hirabayashi studied Japanese history at the Keio University (Tokyo) and British art history at the University of York. Her current research focuses on British Japonisme, specifically the art interaction and collection between Britain and Japan from the late nineteenth century to the early twentieth century. This blog examines the Ricketts and Shannon collection of Hokusai prints.

Hokusai in the Ricketts and Shannon Collection

Japan ended its national isolation in the mid-nineteenth century, which led to an increase in trade between Britain and Japan. Britain imported various Japanese artefacts, and at the same time, the trend of Japonisme, which brought inspiration to Western artists, came to Britain. In the 1880s, it gradually became easier for people in Britain to acquire Japanese artefacts at auctions and galleries. 

Charles Ricketts and Charles Shannon also had an interest in Japanese art. They collected more than 300 Japanese artworks. Their Japanese art collection was bequeathed to the British Museum and the Fitzwilliam Museum after their deaths. It includes ukiyo-e (woodblock) prints, drawings, and paintings. The collection contains artefacts by artists from the Edo period, such as Kitagawa Utamaro and Suzuki Harunobu, and it includes many of Katsushika Hokusai's works. Hokusai's artworks account for over 30% of the entire Ricketts and Shannon Japanese art collection. Regarding Hokusai, Ricketts commented that he was one of the greatest artists in the world and that he astonished all European countries (Noguchi, 1916, p. 194). He also stated that as a 'contemporary of Goya and Turner, Hokusai acted not only as an example in his own country but as a stimulus upon the art of Europe' (Ricketts, 1911, p. 29)

Ricketts and Shannon already possessed Japanese artefacts at the end of the 1880s, and they decorated their house, the Vale, with ukiyo-e prints by Hokusai (Ricketts, 1932, p. 33). In the 1890s, they enthusiastically began collecting Japanese art. In 1897, they purchased Hokusai's book, Suikoden at the Captain Francis Brinkley sale, and Ricketts described the acquisition as 'one of the great hauls of our lives' (Charles Shannon's Diary, 18 November 1897; Ricketts, 1939, p. 22). 

Katsushika Hokusai, Preparatory Drawing Album for the 'Ehon Suikoden',
(c.1828) [Collection The British Museum]

Suikoden [Tales of the Water Margin] is a Chinese novel written during the Ming dynasty. It was translated into Japanese, and it became popular in Japan in the nineteenth century. Hokusai produced many illustrations of Suikoden. Hokusai's Suikoden book, which Ricketts and Shannon acquired at Brinkley sale, is currently in the British Museum collection. In the book, 53 drawings are pasted on mounts decorated with gold leaf. Ricketts paid attention to Hokusai's figure depiction in the drawings and believed Hokusai's ability equalled Rembrandt's (Noguchi, 1916, p. 195). At present, compared to Hokusai's ukiyo-e prints, few of his drawings exist because they have been lost or destroyed, for example by fire. Therefore, this Suikoden book in the Ricketts and Shannon collection is an important work in which to observe Hokusai's brushwork.

Katsushika Hokusai, 'Sakyô no dayû Michimasa' from the series of
One Hundred Poems by One Hundred Poets, Explained by the Nurse (c.1835)
[Collection Fitzwilliam Museum]

In the Ricketts and Shannon Japanese art collection, Sakyô no dayû Michimasa from the series of One Hundred Poems by One Hundred Poets, Explained by the Nurse, which is now in the Fitzwilliam Museum collection, is another of Hokusai's rare artworks. Sakyô no dayû Michimasa is a preparatory drawing for ukiyo-e prints, and it depicts a Heian Period aristocrat, Fujiwara no Michimasa. Preparatory drawings normally did not survive because they were lost during the printing process. However, One Hundred Poems by One Hundred Poets, Explained by the Nurse is an incomplete ukiyo-e print series. Therefore, more than 60 preparatory drawings of the series were not used for printing, and they still exist. After the bequest of Sakyô no dayû Michimasa to the Fitzwilliam Museum in 1937, this drawing was forgotten for a long time before it was rediscovered in the 1990s (Morse, 1996, pp. 16, 20-22, 134-135, 215). 

Katsushika Hokusai, 'Kōka Mon’in no Bettō', from the series of
One Hundred Poems by One Hundred Poets, Explained by the Nurse 
(late 1830s) [Collection The British Museum]

The Ricketts and Shannon collection contains another Hokusai preparatory drawing, Kōka Mon’in no Bettō from the same series as Sakyô no dayû Michimasa. This drawing is currently in the British Museum collection. 

In the 1900s and 1910s, Ricketts and Shannon actively collected Japanese artefacts. In fact, around 1910, there was an increase in opportunities to encounter Japanese artworks, especially ukiyo-e prints at auctions. For example, in a letter to Sydney Cockerell dated 11 August 1913, Ricketts wrote that the number of Japanese artworks in the Ricketts and Shannon collection had almost doubled in 1912. 

Ultimately, Ricketts and Shannon became some of the most notable Japanese art collectors in Britain, their Japanese art collection exceeding 300 works. Considering the contents of their collection, it is notable that most of the Hokusai works are ukiyo-e prints, many of which are iconic. Hokusai created several ukiyo-e print series, the most famous of which is Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji (early 1830s), containing 46 different prints. (At first, Hokusai created 36 different prints, as the series title reflects. After the release of Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji, this series became very popular, and Hokusai added ten additional prints to the series.) In the Ricketts and Shannon collection, there are 45 different works, including one of the most spectacular prints in this series, The Great Wave. 

Katsushika Hokusai, 'Under the Wave off Kanagawa' from the series of
Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji (1831) [Collection The British Museum]

Except for Clear Day with a Southern Breeze, the Ricketts and Shannon collection contains almost all the prints of this series. Moreover, the collection includes all the prints of Hokusai's other ukiyo-e print series: Tour of Waterfalls in Various Provinces; Wondrous Views of Famous Bridges in Various Provinces; and Snow, Flower and Moon (1830s).

Katsushika Hokusai,

'The Waterfall where Yoshitsune Washed his Horse in Yoshino,

Yamato Province' from the series of

Tour of Waterfalls in Various Provinces (c.1833)

[Collection The British Museum]

Specifically, Tour of Waterfalls and Wondrous Views of Famous Bridges are masterpieces of landscape ukiyo-e prints. This way of collecting shows the collectors' intention to complete Hokusai's great ukiyo-e print series. In addition, the contents of their collection align with Ricketts's opinion: 'Turner's faculties of invention were immense, but as a designer of landscape, he was surpassed by Hokusai, his contemporary, who was also a great figure draughtsman' (Ricketts, 1911, p. 5).

Katsushika Hokusai, 'Suspension Bridge on the Border between Hida and Etchū Provinces' 
from the series of Wondrous Views of Famous Bridges in Various Provinces (c.1834)
[Collection The British Museum]

After Ricketts and Shannon passed away, their Hokusai collection, which contained prominent works, was exhibited not only in Britain but also in Japan. In recent years, as part of international touring exhibitions of the British Museum, two exhibitions have been held in Japan: Hokusai: Beyond the Great Wave at the Abeno Harukas Art Museum in 2017, and Hokusai from the British Museum at the Suntory Museum of Art in 2022. These two exhibitions showed Kōka Mon’in no Bettō and ukiyo-e prints from the series of Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji, Tour of Waterfalls in Various Provinces, and Wondrous Views of Famous Bridges in Various Provinces. 

Ricketts and Shannon's Hokusai collection contains high-quality artefacts, and it has been making an important contribution to Japanese art collecting in Britain for a long time.

                                                                                                  Mariko Hirabayashi

References:

• Peter Morse, Hokusai: Hyakunin-isshu Uba ga Etoki, trans. Takashina Erika. Tokyo, Iwanami Shoten, 1996
• Noguchi Yonejiro, Ōshū Bundan Insho-ki. Tokyo, Hakujitsusha, 1916.
• Charles Ricketts, A Century of Art, 1810-1910. London, Carfax and Co., 1911.
• Charles Ricketts, Oscar Wilde: Recollections. London, Nonesuch Press, 1932.
• [Charles Ricketts], Self-Portrait Taken from the Letters & Journals of Charles Ricketts, R.A. Collected and Compiled by T. Sturge Moore. Edited by Cecil Lewis. London, Peter Davies, 1939.
• Charles Shannon's Diary, British Library: Ricketts and Shannon Papers Vol. XXVI, 1898, Add MS 58110.

See also:

Mariko Hirabayashi, Charles Ricketts and Japan. British Japonisme of the Second Generation from the 1880s to the 1930s. PhD Thesis, University of York, 2022. [Online at WhiteRose.]

705. Charles Ricketts, a Design for Salome

Again an auction with a work attributed to Charles Ricketts is announced. A design drawing for a costume of Salome is lot 162 in the Fine Paintings and Frames sale at Parker Fine Arts Auction (Farnham, Surrey) on 6 February. It is a watercolour, 'signed with initials, and inscribed in pencil', 12.75" x 11.25" (32.4 x 28.6cm). 

[Attributed to] Charles Ricketts, design for Salome (undated)

Underneath the image, on the mount, is the attribution:

DESIGN FOR SALOME BY
        CHARLES RICKETTS R.A.
                1866 - 1931

Personally, I can not see a signature, but the handwritten notes in the upper left hand corner could certainly be by Charles Ricketts.

[Attributed to] Charles Ricketts, design for Salome (undated)

If this is indeed a sketch for Oscar Wilde's Salome, then probably one for the first performances in 1906 - the later drawings from 1919 show a considerably different style. 

'Scheme of colours' for [Attributed to] Charles Ricketts, design for Salome (undated)

The 'Scheme of colours', written in the upper left hand corner, does not mention the name or function of the woman depicted. She does not look like Salomé, and because of the vessel in front of her, this may have been intended as a costume design for one of the female servants or enslaved people in the play.

Incidentally, this watercolour contains a second portrait in the top right corner. There, the outline of a woman's head in profile is visible in blue.

[Attributed to] Charles Ricketts, design for Salome (undated) [detail]

704. Charles Shannon's Portrait of a Woman in Highwayman's Garb

At Aubrey's in Guildford, tomorrow, an interesting portrait of a woman will be for sale in the ‘Old Master, British & European’ sale. Lot 9 comprises Charles Shannon's ‘The Lady in a Black Hat – Miss Rachel Castellani’ from 1915. The estimate is £10,000–£15,000. 

Charles Shannon, 'The Lady in a Black Hat - Miss Rachel Castellani' (1915)

The painting has also been described as ‘Lady in a Three-cornered Hat’ or ‘Portrait of a Girl in a Black Hat’. However, the title in the 1916 exhibition catalogue of the Royal Academy gives the name of the sitter.

The Exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts 1916 (detail of page 21)

The painting was owned by Ralston Mitchell in the early 1920s, disappearing from sight until a 1988 sale, and, in 1992, was used for the cover of an edition of Virginia Woolf's Orlando. Now, almost forty years later it will change hands again.

The auction house has devoted a web page to the portrait (see Aubrey's blog page):

'The Lady in a Black Hat, Portrait of Miss Rachel Castellani' depicts a woman with androgynous charm, dressed in highwayman’s garb — an attire that was briefly fashionable during the First World War. She sits, arms folded, gazing up at the viewer. Amidst the rich, warm orange and brown hues, vibrant highlights of colour draw the viewer’s attention through her blue gemstone ring and the crimson flowers that creep into the frame. This mysterious painting is one of Shannon’s most accomplished works, distinguishing itself from the rest of his paintings with the sitter’s direct gaze yet informal posture. The painting focuses on the psychological depth of the sitter, creating an intimacy between her and viewer, while also exuding an air of regality and reservedness through her body language and ambiguous expression. The painting reflects his interest in portraying his subjects with a blend of realism and a touch of idealisation.

The artist Augustus John also painted a portrait of the sitter, which he exhibited at the Alpine Club Gallery from November 1917 for three months. His painting, now at the Tate, was simply called 'Portrait of a Girl'. (See Art UK for an image).

Perhaps, Augustus John used her as a model before this painting was exhibited. The Sketch suggested this in the 3 May 1916 issue (discussing Shannon's portrait): 'a former Augustus John sitter, surely?'

The Western Daily Press (29 April 1916) had judged Shannon's portrait as follows: 'an interesting and provocative study of personality, with the dark costume admirably designed on the grey ground'. Truth (10 May 1916) wrote that this painting was 'perhaps the clou of the exhibition' because of its 'simplicity', 'interest' and 'unconsciousness':

A portrait such as this makes you feel that it is easy to paint, although direct evidence to the contrary offers itself here on every side.

The Connoisseur (May-August 1916), however, gave a warning:

Mr. Charles Shannon is another artist who paints portraits in a beautiful convention. His titles betray his guiding principles. Miss Helen Lawson is styled The Lady with a Coral, Miss Hilda Moore, The Lady with the Amethys, and Miss Rachel Castellani, The Lady in the Black Hat.

Herein is a frank warning that we must not regard these pictures as likenesses of individuals so much as arrangements in colour, in which the dominant note is suggested by the object which furnishes the title to each work.

Apart from her name, the identity of the sitter remains obscure... 

(Hammer price was: £9.000.)

703. Barry Humphries ("Dame Edna")'s Collection

Two years ago, in April 2023, Barry Humphries - aka Dame Edna - died. An amateur painter himself, he was an avid collector of art and books, and the work of the 1890s artists Charles Conder (who lived in Australia from 1884 to 1890) is at the core of the collection that will be auctioned by Christie's in London on 13 February 2025. 

The collection not only includes works written, drawn or painted by the usual 1890s suspects like John Gray, Max Beerbohm, Aubrey Beardsley, Marc André Raffalovich, Jan Toorop and, of course, Oscar Wilde, but also by European stars such as Portuguese poet Fernand Pessoa and forgotten artists such as Dutch artist Carel de Nerée tot Babberich, and in between one encounters books by the likes of Mary Shelley, Gustave Doré, Paul Verlaine and F. Scott Fitzgerald. Humphries also owned original drawings by Edward Lear, Edward Burne-Jones, Fernand Khnopff, Duncan Grant and Henri Toulouse de Lautrec.

Charles Ricketts, cover for John Gray,
Silverpoints (Bookplate of Barry Humphries)

The sale includes a deluxe copy (not numbered) of John Gray's Silverpoints, bound in full vellum, designed by Ricketts. Officially there were 25 numbered copies, but at least two unnumbered copies have turned up over the years (possibly more).

The Oscar Wilde section is particularly strong, containing a first state binding of A House of Pomegranates, including two leaves from Wilde's autograph draft for 'The Fisherman and his Soul'; a large-paper copy of The Picture of Dorian Gray (with a letter from Wilde to Ada Leverson), a copy of Poems (1892) - not pristine, but once owned by artist and critic Aymer Vallance - and, of course, signed by Wilde; two dedication copies of the French edition of Salomé; Wilde's autograph draft of seventeen of his epigrams, and several copies of a number of his plays in first edition, notably a presentation copy of The Importance of Being Oscar (one of twelve copies on Japanese vellum, dedicated by Wilde to his publishers Leonard Smithers); and a large-paper edition of The Sphinx of which 25 copies exist in the luxurious binding by Ricketts. 

The collection is complemented by paraphernalia from Barry Humphries's theatrical career, including eyewear and costumes from his persona Dame Edna - a pair of spectacles may amount to £1,000-1,500.

702. Orlando

A new version of 'The Orlando Project' was published online two months ago. Hosted by the University of Alberta (Canada) and published online by the Cambridge University Press, it contains profiles of women writers that have been compiled by the collaboration of literary scholars, digital humanists and computing scientists and allows for 'the serendipities of productive browsing' as well as for 'answering precise, complex questions'. 

Orlando. A Feminist Resource for the History of Women's Writing

The website proudly announces:

This is literary history with a difference. Not a book, though in length the equivalent of more than 80 scholarly books, and not a digital edition of an existing text, it is a richly searchable textbase of born-digital, original writing. It is full of interpretive information on women, literature, and culture, with more than 8 million words of text in documents on the lives and writing of over 1400 authors, together with a great deal of contextual historical material on relevant subjects, such as education, politics, science, the law, and economics.

(See the Alberta pages on The Orlando Project.)

'Orlando. A Feminist Resource for the History of Women's Writing' can be found on the site of Cambridge University Press (see Orlando). A search for Ricketts brings us to articles about Michael Field, Ada Leverson, and other subjects.

Ricketts in 'Orlando. A Feminist Resource for the History of Women's Writing'

Ricketts and Shannon are obviously covered only as an aside in this database, but the writing women they knew, such as Michael Field, are discussed at length.

Michael Field in 'Orlando. A Feminist Resource for the History of Women's Writing'

The database is only partly in open access (such as the queries mentioned above), and is available by annual subscription to libraries, institutions and individuals (prices are not mentioned on the website).

701. A Portrait of the Artist as a Reader

Charles Ricketts was an avid reader who regularly mentioned in his letters which books he was engrossed in or re-reading, as he did in a letter to his old friend the poet and artist Thomas Sturge Moore who received Ricketts's opinion of Marcel Proust:

Do you read Marcel Proust the new idol? I find him curiously interesting & almost intolerable, preoccupied with sex as he is, he gives me the impression of a spinster, there are chance pages of quite admirable analysis of feeling, sensation & emotion & amazing conversations. The Times reviewed his last Vol which is as yet unpublished.

and at the end of the same letter he suggests:

Marie might like Proust better than you since his minute pictures of French ^family life in all phases are singularly vivid, his books it is curious he should have an English vogue.

(Letter dated 18 September 1924: BL Add MS 58086, f 116)

Marie was Marie Appia, of French descendent.

In the early days of The Vale, Ricketts commented instantly on what he was reading. Moore, who  rented a room at Ricketts's home in The Vale, recalled that Ricketts could not enjoy William Morris's poetry:

[...] he came up to my room at the Vale after trying to read the Earthly Paradise and said that it was the kind of poetry to give to boys: that one thanked the lord when a word like 'swared' turned up! for that did remind you that it was poetry

(Letter to Gordon Bottomley, 21 March 1922: BL AA MS 88957/I/68 ff.81-3)

An early drawing exists showing Ricketts reading, and, by chance, the caption indicates which book he is reading: Thomas de Quincey's Confessions of an English Opium-Eater [the title is given as The Confessions of an Opium-Eater]. 

Charles Shannon, Portrait of Charles Ricketts (1890s)
[British Museum: 1946,0209.124:
© The Trustees of the British Museum
Shared under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) licence]

According to the website of the British Museum it is an undated self-portrait but I would suggest that the graphite drawing was made by Charles Shannon in the early 1890s. Ricketts is depicted whole-length, seated in a chair to front, holding a book. (Museum number 1946,0209.124, donated by Mrs Constance Rea, born Halford).