PEAR TREE LOG

pear tree log: I started this blog to keep my younger son, Jonny, in touch with life in Lincolnshire, while he spent a year working in China. That year turned into five! Now he is home and training to become a physics teacher. This is simply a patchwork quilt of some of the things I enjoy - life in rural Lincolnshire, our animals, friends, architecture, books, the gardens, and things of passing interest.



Wednesday 22 February 2012

Buried Treasure

H L Atkinson is the name on the flyleaf of two rather scruffy hardback notebooks, which I found hidden at the bottom of a box of books purchased at auction.
The illustrations are mainly, but not exclusively, heraldic in nature.  
They are rough and unfinished,


but have a certain charm.
I had decided that it was the work of a male, but then I came across these
with full and detailed descriptions of the fabrics and styles a couple of pages further on. 
I love these sketches.
Several sheets of this headed notepaper were tucked into the book, most with little sketches on the reverse.  I wonder whether this was the father to H. L. Atkinson.  So far my dabbles into research have produced nothing of any great interest.  Except for this
Borrowed Image
an illustration done by one L Atkinson, ARCA - I believe it shows the aftermath of bombing in a city.  


It is an interesting little collection - and one of these days I will knuckle down and start exploring the internet and records to see what I can find out about these two people.


I love handwritten, and painted, treasures like this.    They were an added bonus which I delight in looking through every now and then.

13 comments:

  1. You have so many treasures. You must have a magically expanding house.

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    1. Hi Joanne, Not a magically expanding house - just very crowded bookshelves, and a dressing room which is more of a book repository than a wardrobe!

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  2. This is so interesting...I need to look at this again this evening and do a little research myself. Thanks you, Elaine, for this post.
    Well done.

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    1. Hi Jane, The notebooks contain lots of handwritten notes and those rough sketches and paintings. Nothing especially fine, but they excite me in the way that old buildings do!

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  4. Leslie Atkinson, in 1942 was one of the first artists to record the devastation of the Bath Blitz. That may be the painting you have pictured. Your find in the bottom of that box is a real treasure!

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    1. My goodness Meggie, you have been busy! You have already found out more than I have managed - thank you. I am constantly amazed and saddened at the lovely, handwritten treasures which get separated from their families. I suppose in the rush to clear a house they don't bother to look through things properly and see the family history and connection to them. I wonder whether the notebooks owner was Leslie Atkinson's offspring! Fascinating. Thank you so much!

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    1. Two scruffy old notebooks, of no monetary value, but I really enjoy looking through them. That's real treasure!

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  6. Wow - that's an amazing find. It's incredible how all these sketches sort of tell a story. Jx

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    1. Hi Jan, Isn't it amazing! Small sketches, flashes of talent, an unknown story. I love speculating about it.

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  7. Don't you just love a mystery? Happy hunting for the clues to your elusive artist!

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    1. Hi Ms Sparrow, I really do enjoy pondering and speculating on the story of these notebooks and I look forward to being able to hunt for clues - one fine day!

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