Souvenir album

Gazette Internationale, Philippe Dufour

In the sitting room of the Château de Coulonges, in the Sarthe department, an album containing around fifty original gouache and watercolour drawings was long displayed like a guestbook. Carefully preserved by the descendants of its author, Baron François Adolphe Akermann (1809-1890), it was admired by visitors for over a century. This governor of the Bank of France created the collection for his wife on the “liber amicorum” model. Following a well-established tradition, it was considered good formfor guests at a château to expresstheirthanks with a pencil or watercolour composition, which their hosts would hasten to add to their collection. Mounted on single medium-sized loose leaves (20 x 30 cm), these fragile creations have been protected from the light and are still remarkably fresh.They will be auctioned separately, with estimates ranging from€500 for an inkwash by Émile Jean-Horace Vernet to €8,000/10,000 for a “Seascape” by Richard Parkes Bonington (1802-1828), who also did this
“Woman praying over a tomb”(€5,000/6,000). Together, these numerous French and foreign signatures represent a sizeable selection of the mid-19th-century Romantic school.

Vendôme, Rouillac auction house.

• gazette-anglaise-no-77-selection (1).pdf