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[Bookplate for Garnet Joseph Wolseley by Charles William Sherborn]

1885

1 bookplate : burin engraving ; 7.9 x 11.1 cm

England

Prints

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Sir Garnet Joseph Wolseley (1813-1913), born in Ireland, was later known as Baron Wolseley of Cairo and Viscount Wolseley, and was a decorated and well known military officer, serving as the commander-in-chief of the British army from 1895-1900. His military career sent him around the world, serving the British army in India, Africa, the Crimean peninsula, China, and Canada. Sent to Canada in 1861 he took the appointment of assistant quartermaster-general (later promoted to deputy-quartermaster general in 1865) and most notably eventually commanded the Red River expedition in 1870. His later appointments brought him to Ashanti in western Africa and Egypt. During his military career he received numerous awards, including The Order of St. Patrick, Order of Merit, Order of the Bath, Order of St. Michael and St. George, and a Volunteer Decoration, all of which are depicted on the bookplate. Wolseley married Louisa Erskine (1843-1920) in 1867, and had one daughter, Frances Garnet Wolseley (1872-1936), a noted horticulturalist and author who founded the The College for Lady Gardners at Glynde. Wolseley himself was a frequent contributors to periodicals and an author as well, publishing titles such as 'The Decline and Fall of Napoleon' (1895), 'The Life of John Churchill' (1894), and 'The Story of a Soldier's Life' (1903), an autobiographical work. The latter titles are available at UBC Library. Charles William Sherborn (bookplate is signed C.W.S) was a highly active and sought after bookplate engraver. The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography reports that Sherborn was regarded highly as a skilled etcher and engraver, and the number of bookplates he produced was 350 between 1881-1912. Sherborn was born June 1831 to Mary Bance and Charles Sherborn (b. 1796), an upholsterer. In 1845, Sherborn switched from school at Cave House in Uxbridge to the government school of drawing and design at Somerset House, and also apprenticed under a silver-plate engraver, Robert Oliver, which he completed in 1852. After his schooling, he travelled to Paris, Italy, and eventually Geneva, where he settled for roughly two years as a goldsmith designer and engraver. After his return to London in 1856, he continued engraving for jewellers, but eventually abandoned jewellery engraving in 1872 and moved to work as an independent etcher and engraver, where he found his success, and worked on bookplates, among other endeavors. This bookplate specimen is included in Egerton Castle's 1894 publication, "English Book-plates: Ancient and Modern," and cites this bookplate as "among the best Armorial designs of the age" (159). Sherborn eventually became a fellow of the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers in 1884 and Vice-President of the Ex Libris Society. He married in 1860 to Hannah Simpson (d. 1922) and had five children: four sons and a daughter. Notably, one of his sons is the geologist and scientific bibliographer Charles Davies Sherborn (1861-1942).
References:
1) Beckett, Ian F. W. 'Wolseley, Garnet Joseph, first Viscount Wolseley (1833-1913)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, Jan 2008 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/36995, accessed 4 Feb 2008]
2) Bumstead, J.M. "Wolseley, Garnet Joseph 1st Viscount." The Canadian Encyclopedia. Accessed 3 Mar. 2008 from http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=A1ARTA0008673
3) Castle, Egerton. "Designs by C.W. Sherborn." English Book-plates: Ancient and Modern. 2nd ed, reprint. London: George Bell & Sons, York Street; Covent Garden & New York, 1894. 159. Digitized by Google 14 Jun. 2007. Original from Harvard University. Accessed 4 Feb. 2008 from http://books.google.com/books?id=DoMDAAAAYAAJ&dq=%22english+book+plates%22
4) "Garnet Wolseley, 1st Viscount Wolseley." Wikipedia. 6 Feb. 2008. Accessed 3 Mar 2008 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garnet_Wolseley,_1st_Viscount_Wolseley

RBSC Bookplates

2008

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