@26102025 Note: All images are © British Library Board
Ayntoun. Lays of the Scottish Cavaliers and other poems, Black wood 1863.
The British library acquired this copy in the Bonhams online auction of Robin de Beaumont's collection held on 31 January 2024. (BL shelfmark C188b177) The condition of the book and its morocco binding is fine. Its fresh apppearance shows us what the mid-Vicorian purchaser would have seen on the shelves of a bookseller.
Aytoun, William Edmondstone. Lays of the Scottish Cavaliers and other poems. With illustrations by Joseph Noel Paton, R. S. A., and Waller H. Paton. Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood and Sons, 1863. 268p. Edinburgh: Printed by R. & R. Clark.
The full set of notes relating to this copy is available at: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:C188b177_01.jpg
The Scottish artist Joseph Noel Paton provided many of the illustrations, and of the head-pieces and tail-pieces throughout the work, to acompany a poem or text. Tipped in at the rear of this copy is a sale slip for a drawing by Noel Paton, entitled: “Two lovers in a garden”. Robin de Beaumont wrote on this slip: “This is the drawing in the Rupert Toovey sale E. Sussex 10th October 2001 with much else of Noel Paton from a descendent who lived locally. A group (of drawings in ink and in pencil) which I bought at the same sale are inserted in my copy of Aytoun’s Lays of the Scottish Cavaliers, 1863.”
So, unusually, we can view the original drawings made by Noel Paton for this work, inserted alongside the engraved and published version. Several of the drawings are not distinct/ sharp, probably indicating an early state. This may imply that more detailed drawings were made, and supplied to the engravers, who destroyed the drawing when cutting out the design onto wood.
The drawings inserted are: page1 - drawing for page header “Edinburgh after Flodden”; page 27 – pencil drawing for the header “The Execution of Montrose”[see image below for detail]; page 48 – pencil drawing for the tail-piece of “The Execution of Montrose”; page 49 – two pencil drawings to accompany the header for “The Heart of the Bruce”; page 51 & 52- four pencil/ ink drawings to accompany the tail-piece of “The Heart of the Bruce”; page 69 – one ink drawing to accompany the header of “The Burial March of Dundee”; facing page 122 “The Island of the Scots”, a ink drawing for the tail-piece; page 138 - a pencil drawing, recto, accompanying the header for “Charles Edward at Versailles”; ditto, page 138, showing de Beaumont’s note on the verso of the drawing; page 163 – a pencil drawing of “Monument of the statue, St. Peter’s Rome”; page 193 – an ink drawing for the title page of “Miscellaneous Poems”; page 214 – two drawings (ink and pencil?) accompanying the tail-piece of “Hermotimus”; page 215 – one pencil drawing accompanying the poem “Oenone”; page 231 – one pencil drawing accompanying the tail-piece for “The Burial Flower”; [not paginated] an ink sketch for a header (unused?).
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/78/C188b177_06.jpg
The Sun (London newspaper) of 24 November 1863, page 1, col. 2, carries an advertisement by the publishers Blackwood: “…small 4to., printed on toned paper, bound in gilt cloth, 21s.” Copies bound in morocco would have a higher purchase price.
BL 2292.i.1
The BL legal deposit copy at shelf mark 2292.i.1 The original upper cover has been used as a doublure, in a British Museum binding. We can see that this has the same cover design as for BL C188b177. Marbled edges. Red pebble grain cloth. There is a wide border of repeating squares, each composed of four triangles. On each corner, a shield is blocked in and a motto blocked in a pennant beneath each shield. The mottos are likely to be: top left – ‘in defense’; top right: ‘jamais arriere’ (never behind); bottom left – ‘n oubliez’- do not forger; bottom right –‘recta sursum’ (straight up). The inner central oval is delineated by three rules blocked in gold. At its head and its tail, a thistle and a fleur-de-lis are blocked in gold. On the centre, there are three crossed swords, with a gilt pennant having the motto picked out in relief: ‘Nemo me impune lacessit’ (No one provokes me with impunity). Although the original upper cover blocked onto cloth has survived, one can see the condition of this copy as 'fair' only.
The British Museum de Beaumont copy is at reg. no. 1996,1104.2 It has a green Morocco binding. On the centre of each cover, the coat of arms of Scotland is blocked in gold, surmounted by a crown.
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