We are offering an autograph album (3 1/2" x 5") filled with wonderful ink drawings (one in pencil) made after WWI and into the early 1920s. The album belonged to Elsie Sedgwick, 12 Stowe Street, Albro, England [written on inside of front cover]. There are many drawings of WWI scenes; drawings of romancing couples; some of famous people; humorous cartoons with witty captions of people, animals, fish, a wild rugy game, etc.; and fashionable sophisticated society women. Most of the drawings are signed "C. H. Goring", "C.H.G.", or "Chas. Goring".
WWI SCENES: a French officer smoking a cigarette, with an unconcerned expression on his face, as bullets fly at him - Titled "Boredom". The French were sometimes known to be blase (blah zay), a French word meaning unimpressed or indifferent to something because one has experienced it or seen it so often before - in this case, war. A soldier sitting in what looks like a trench - writing a letter as two field mice watch him. A soldier with a bayonet chasing another soldier. A soldier sitting on the ground - writing a letter as a bullet tears through the paper, and bombs explode over the hill behind him. A drawing made up of two scenes - first one, with caption "Delivering the Goods" - a soldier driving a supply truck as very large rocket-like bullets fly at him tearing holes in the canvas covering the truck. The second one, with caption "The Finish" where the truck is almost completely demolished. A man in uniform who may be a German officer, with the caption "Many Happy Returns" written next to what appears to be a funeral wreath.
There is a pencil sketch of
Lady Diana Manners, Viscountess of Norwich, who was an actress and part of a high society group of people who hosted and attended very wild parties, from what we have read. Other drawings are of
Friar Tuck (from Robin Hood); silent film actor
Charlie Chaplin;
Tishy the horse with his jockey, a character from a 1922 short animated film called "Tishy";
Sir John;
Achille Serre, a Parisian ribbon dyer, who moved to England in 1870 where he invented the process of dry cleaning.
And, a drawing of a very funny, wild rugby game.