Pen drawing
E. Gill
Category
Art / Drawings and watercolours
Date
1826
Materials
Mahogany, Paper, Glass
Measurements
408 mm (H)307 mm (W)55 mm (D)
Order this imageCollection
Snowshill Manor and Garden, Gloucestershire
NT 1329855
Summary
Pen drawings on old playing cards by E Gill c.1826 showing farmyard animals and human pastimes. Contained in a mahogany frame. 'Mary Blanche Bulwer, Charles Wade's great grandmother was as a girl sent to a finishing school in London. Miss Gill the mistress, had an elderly brother living at the school. He was kind to the girls and used to sketch clever pictures on playing cards, making use of the pips to form grotesque groups and on the plain backs drew figures in pen and ink, cutting out the upper part. The school was so genteel the girls never had enough to eat, a healthy appetite being considered vulgar, so the girls used to bribe the kitchen maid to smuggle cakes to stay their hunger. In spite of it all Blanche grew up into a handsome girl with a good figure and perfect health; she stayed at this school till she was 20. (451)' (M. Jessup)
Provenance
Given to the National Trust with Snowshill Manor in 1951 by Charles Paget Wade.
Makers and roles
E. Gill, artist