Album of watercolours of Madeira, Brazil, the Falkland and Pacific Islands, Chile, Panama, Mexico, Vancouver, and California
[Summary: for a more detailed account of the Fanshawe albums, see Notebook field.] This album contains 66 items, PAI4605-PAI4670, comprising one unnumbered and 63 numbered by the artist according to album page (including two pages each bearing two drawings as [a] and [b]). It covers Fanshawe's commission in command of HMS 'Daphne' 1848-52, on the Pacific station based at Valparaiso, Chile, under Rear-Admiral Phipps Hornby in the 84-gun 'Asia'. Note that Daphne's figurehead is also in the collection (FHD0072). The earliest dated drawing is of Madeira, 1 January 1849 on the way out, and the last of Cape Horn on the return, 28 May 1852. They run sequentially by date but the first in the book (PAI4605), which shows a room in Fanshawe's London home and has no inscription, appears to be of later origin. The whole was probably assembled after 1855 if the likely date of PAI4605 is indicative, or between 1852 and 1854 at earliest if that was inserted later. The album page captions were added as part of the assembly process and it is fairly clear that the dates given for the subjects are not necessarily when the drawings were made - though some are - but those that the views represent, if only retrospective by a few days in many cases. PAI4671 is another Fanshawe album covering his service in the Baltic and Mediterranean (1854-58), with a few other subjects from 1843 to 1883. While he certainly did similar drawings throughout his career, the whereabouts of others made at other times are not known, assuming they survive. Old numbers on the items suggest both albums are to some degree selections, and he may have discarded others in assembling them. [PvdM 4/10]
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