32
Elcock (Charles) Artist.
Album entitled “
Sketches in Aran, 1883, and
in Co. Galway
.” 39 double pages comprising water colours in brown,
notes, plans and sketches, of forts, church ruins, inscribed stones
etc. This is an exceptionally early and important pictorial record of
the monuments of the Aran Islands and other parts of Galway. As an
Album, w.a.f.
The contents also include:
Letter published in the
Irish
Times on 16 October 1883 from the
Kilkenny antiquarian James Graves: “I have read with pain, in your
issue of Friday last, Mr Elcock’s account of the injuries and demolitions
suffered by the great stone Forts on Arran…” Graves assures the
readers that the bill introduced into parliament last year [the Ancient
Monuments Protection Act, 1882] should deal with this problem.
•
Painting of “Aran fishwife on boat from Aran, very near mal de mer.”
(sea-sickness)
•
A note on “pampootas” (the rawhide shoes made and worn on the
Aran Islands)
•
Sketch of an old house in Abbey Lane, Galway.
•
Sketch of frescoes in Knockmoy Abbey.
•
Notes in shorthand on Daneholes in Hangman’s Wood, Essex.
(Daneholes are underground prehistoric caves, probably used in the
extraction of chalk. Hangman’s Wood is now a protected area and its
daneholes are a major hibernation site for bats.)
•
The compiler, Charles Elcock (1834-1910), a Quaker, was born in
Pontefract, West Yorkshire and moved to Belfast in about 1875.
He was a keen antiquarian and an active member of the Belfast
Naturalists Field Club.(1)
€1500 - 2000
Imperfections Not Stated
356
Highly Important Sketch Book of Aran Islands
