The Little Holland House Album: Rare Book of the Week

Quaritch is now offering The Little Holland House Album … with an Introduction & Notes by John Christian, published for the Roxburghe Club.

It was was compiled by artist Edward Burne-Jones around 1858-9 for Sophia, Mrs Dalrymple, a close friend and the youngest of the seven Pattle sisters, including photographer Julia Margaret Cameron, who played an important role in mid-Victorian cultural life. Their centre was Little Holland House in Kensington where one of the sisters, Sara Prinsep, created an artistic and intellectual salon around her permanent guest, painter G. F. Watts. 

The album consists of eight poems by Rossetti, Browning, Tennyson, and Keats, transcribed by Burne-Jones and illustrated by him with drawings and vignettes, plus separate designs on the endpapers.

The album was first published in 1981 in an edition of 200 copies by 21-year-old Robert Dalrymple who has now prepared a revised and expanded edition for the members of the Roxburghe Club. 150 copies have been printed, of which 75 are offered for sale, bound in quarter cloth with patterned paper boards. 56 pp, £75 (approximately $97).


The Roxburghe Club was founded in 1812 and is the oldest society of bibliophiles in the world, with a membership limited to 40, printing unpublished documents and reprinting rare printed texts.