Floral Design Album of a Furniture Maker

Half Morocco. Pebbled cloth on boards. . Very Good. Folio, 38 by 28 cm. 96 pages of original botanical or floral artwork mounted onto the pages of the album. Most pages are devoted to a single subject, which is generally a one flower or plant, with multiple depictions of the plant. Thus we are shown the flower, stem, and/or leaves from various angles, or we might be given various examples of any of these plant parts. Clearly the purpose was to inspire the designer as well as provide a handy reference for verisimilitude as he was working on an actual ornament design. It is probable that all the artwork was done by one hand, as there is a coherence in the execution and style. We think the artist is likely to have been a Wilbert Rattray, whose card is mounted onto the corner of the FFEP, but of course we can't be sure of this, and we assume that Mr. Rattray was employed by Brown Brothers of Glasgow and Edinburgh, whose name and address is stamped several times in the album. Brown Brothers was clearly a major furniture-maker of the day. As evidence of this, it is known that the firm exhibited at the 1878 Paris Exposition. Also 21 pages of neatly handwritten notes, presumably by the hand of Rattway, describing the plants shown on the plates with an eye on their pertinence to furniture and other decorative ornament. One page of an incomplete penciled index in the back. Condition: cover is moderately soiled, with minor blistering of the cloth. Scattered light foxing.