Add MS 54486

CHARLES CLARKE: recipe book of Charles Clarke, antiquary (d.1840), chiefly relating to chemistry, technology and art materials; 1788-1836 (ff. 46v, 244v). Autograph, with some printed items. Pen, pencil and watercolour. Some French. Clarke refers to information gathered in Chatham, Gravesend and Guernsey, where he was employed by the Ordnance Office (f. 39v), and gives biographical details of his relative Edward Oram, landscape painter (ff. 186v-187). Among the subjects covered are the following: chemistry; the treatment of metal and woodwork; mechanical instruments; microscopes and telescopes; painting and other art methods in various mediums; recipes for colours, inks and glues. Some items are illustrated by sketches in ink or pencil. Examples of different colours are given in watercolour, partly over-written (ff. 152v-156, 184v-189, 190v). Included are a few miscellaneous household recipes, eg. ff. 147v, 148v. '2204-107', in pencil, 19th cent. (f. i). Accessioned by the Patent Office Library 14 Feb. 1911 (ff. 3, 245v), accession no. 42036 (f. 2). Patent Office Library stamp throughout. Transferred from the Department of Printed Books, 7 Nov. 1968.

Paper; ff. iii+249. Several small note-books, with a few loose papers, bound together apparently by Clarke, see his signature on a fly-leaf, dated 1821

(f. 1). Other sections are also signed and dated: 1790 (f. 2); 1798 (f. 47); 1806 (f. 193). Various sizes, chiefly approx. 180 x 115mm. Brown paper-covered binding, leather spine. Spine labelled 'A B 40', Patent Office Library class number.