100 specimens of horse hair taken from manes and tails of horses alongside portraits of the ponies with annotations giving details of each horse and their stables together iwth drawings, paintings,prints and photographs of individual animals. The collection has been compiled through the English counties of Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, Bedfordshire, Northamptonshire and Berkshire.
DESCRIPTION: Album bound in half pebbled brown cloth boards with purple roan to spine and corners. Spine in 4 compartments, gilt lined to edges of text block. Shelf worn to edges of boards; bruising, fading and wear particularly to front board. Text block edges in good condition. Front endpapers clean, yellowed with a little spotting. Rear endpapers clean, a little spotting. Accomplished hand-painted sketch of a brown mare mounted on front pastedown. Title page inscribed ‘Adeline Blyth’ in a distinctive and very individual black and red decorative cursive. Surrounded by small colourful, hand painted vignettes of hunting ponies, working ponies and ponies and carriages. Colours remain extremely vibrant throughout. Following 30 pp. contain to each recto a collection of horse and pony hair clippings, attached to each leaf with small glued tapes, some clippings decorated with ribbon and each ascribed to a particular named horse or pony. Each section is labelled in black cursive to a particular location: Stoke Ferry, West Norfolk; Boughton Rectory, Northants; Hoe Bridge, Woking; Heath Farm, Woking; West Dereham, Norfolk; Downham Market, Norfolk; Barton Bendish Hall; Haddenham, Cambs; Hinton Hall, Haddenham; Ascot Farm, Leighton Buzzard, Ascot Racing Stud and hunt stables; Brandon, Suffolk. Each verso contains a combination of hand drawn, painted, photographic or printed images of horses and ponies. Named animals include Tudor Rose bought by Mrs Blyth at the Elsenham Sale for 355 Guineas, Youthful Nellie, Jubilee Julia and Staunton Hero. In very good condition throughout. Laid in is a small envelope of leftover ribbon and a piece of pink blotting paper.
