J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours

This is a pre-printed Bank of England slip with handwritten additions in ink. The words printed in black ink are ‘Teape, Printer, Tower-hill, London. | Bank of England, the [blank] day of [blank] 181[blank] | From | £ [blank] Consolidated Three per Cent. Annuities. | To’. They are in Roman fonts except ‘Bank of England’, set in Gothic or black-letter:

This is one of a grouping of four loose papers kept in the integral pocket inside the front cover of the Finance sketchbook (D40898). One, D08356 (Turner Bequest CXXII (1)), is a receipt from a London coaching inn, with a delivery note on the back (D40899). There is another pre-printed Bank of England slip (D08357; Turner Bequest CXXII (2)). The fourth document is a much-folded sheet of accounts (D08359, D40900; Turner Bequest CXXII (4) and verso).

Turner’s name and address here are in the same flowing hand that filled out the whole of D08357, which includes the words ‘W^m, Marsh, Stock Broker, 5, Sweeting’s Alley’, presumably inscribed by Turner’s stockbroker William Marsh himself; the same hand is evident on D08359. The comparatively untidy figures on the lower half of the present sheet appear to be in Turner’s hand. Oddly, the pre-printed year, ‘181’ with the last digit left blank, clearly dates the slip to the 1810s, yet the address inscribed here is that of the London street where Turner was born and brought up, which he had left for Harley Street in 1800.1 D08357 is dated 1814, but gives no address for the artist.

The figure ‘423 5 7’ on the right also appears as the entry for 25 May 1810 on D08359, thus providing a working date for the present document; it also occurs in the Hastings sketchbook (Tate D07686; Turner Bequest CXI 59). Figures from the first column here are repeated on the verso of D08359 (D40900), which appears to be a continuation of accounts for 1810. For more on Turner’s finances as set out in the extensive notes in this sketchbook, see the Introduction.

Technical notes:

The top left-hand corner is missing, having been torn away, perhaps from the top of a pinned bundle of similar slips. There are three main vertical folds, showing that the sheet was folded in half and in half again to fit neatly into the Finance sketchbook’s front pocket along with the three other financial documents. Comparison with the folds in the other Bank of England slip (D08357; CXXII (2)) shows that the present document was folded around it. There are other less regular creases, showing that the sheet has previously been folded differently.

Verso:

Blank, save for inscription in pencil ‘CXXII` (3)’ bottom left.