Three folio scrapbooks compiled by the stockbroker James Ken...

Hammer

£80

Three folio scrapbooks compiled by the stockbroker James Kenrick Edward (b. 1859), dated 1886-1941, being volumes I, III & IX only, illustrative throughout with his close companionship to the confirmed bachelor, his 'uncle', Edward 'The Laird' Wagg (1843-1933), of Glenlochy, Perthshire, Scotland, son of John Wagg of Helbert & Wagg, stockbrokers to their distant Jewish cousins the Rothschilds, but interspersed, particularly the earlier years in volume I with annotated clippings from newspapers and magazines often of a gossipy nature and related to society figures and actresses, many of whom have married into the aristocracy, including the scandalous Lady Colin Campbell divorce case. JEK appears to have been well-connected to the London theatre and its circles, there are several invitations and further ephemera relating to theatrical events, including Augustus Harris, the impresario of Drury Lane; one ephemeral and intriguing piece relates to the Melodramatic Burlesque by Richard Henry of Frankenstein at the Gaiety Theatre for 'Xmas 1887', the cast of which includes a 'Vampire Viscount': the production was not a success, closing after only a week. Further annotations and 'scraps' refer to Duleep Singh and his marriage to Ada 'Marini' Wetherill, a latter from the novelist William Black viz. a rehearsal for Robinson Crusoe in Brighton, etc. Some of Edward's earlier life is autobiographically chronicled by the compiler, Balruddery House passing out of the family and its subsequent destructive fire in 1886, his time at Eton when his schoolfellows destroyed every piece of glass in the theatre, illustrated with 12 original caricatures and studies of dogs by Archibald Stuart-Wortley (1849-1905). The final volume shows how concerned JKE was with the future of these books, almost his autobiography, as it opens with a note from the 'author', dated 1940, leaving them to Harold Wakefield (no doubt a connection through his sister's marriage to the Rev. Richard Wakefield), the same volume also is illustrated with photographs of Glenlochy, its laird and visitors, particularly during the shooting season, and eventually culminated in the 'Laird's' death, and JKE's marriage to Florence Luxton Jeffrey in 1932, etc., original quarter-roan over cloth boards, rubbed, split in places but holding, folios (38.5 x 31.5cm), (3)