Current Location: In storage
Titles
Inscription on headed notepaper relating to 'Wedgewood' valentine card
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Description
A sheet of white laid paper with printed name and address: WALTER ACTON / (The Misses Acton). / Old Laces, Needlework, China, / Miniatures, Costumes, etc. / ALL GOODS GUARANTEED OLD / AND GENUINE. / 10A, EAST STREET, / BRIGHTON. The paper has been folded to operate as a binder, almost certainly for the valentine card, P.14411-R-50. A hand-written inscription on the verso: 'B[?uff &] Wedgewood blue / 5 /-'. Watermark: Prince of Wales feathers / [PRINCE'S] COURT. The firm was run by Walter Acton until 1910 and then by his daughters. P.14411-R-49 is affixed into one of Glaisher's valentine albums opposite a valentine which references Wedgewood blue china. As the Actons of Brighton also supplied Glaisher with ceramics and pottery, presumably they thought that this 'Wedgewood' valentine would appeal to him. See P.14411-R-50. Glaisher purchased many of the valentines in his collection from the Actons of Brighton, especially during the 1920s. These purchases or near purchases are documented in the Fitzwilliam letters from Glaisher to Miss Catherine Parsons. The Actons sent Glaisher valentines on approval and he also visited their shop during trips to Brighton. One of the Misses Acton had her own collection of valentines of which Glaisher was very envious and from which he persuaded her to sell him some: 'I got her even to take one out of her album.'. See Fitzwilliam Museum, MS 892-1985, 14 September, 1924, letter to Miss Catherine Parsons (written on headed notepaper from The Grand Hotel, Brighton). In fact, the arrival of the 'Wedgewood' valentine (P.14411-R-50) and a valentine on the subject of crinolines is documented in a letter from Glaisher to Miss Parsons: 'The enclosed came this morning & explain themselves. They seem to me worth having. Though the Wedgewood one does not much impress me, I like the crinoline one. ... I am sending the valentines by the 4 o'clock OM [Omnibus]. I will write & tell Miss Acton I am sending them to you to see.'. Fitzwilliam Museum, MS 910-1985, 6 December, 1924, letter to Miss Catherine Parsons. Another, similar folded sheet of Walter Acton headed notepaper contained in the same album and inscribed 'Crinoline Valentine / 7/6' is evidence that the crinoline valentine was also kept in Glaisher's collection, but it has not been possible to trace which one. See loose item P.14411-R-L3. The Actons' supply of ceramics and pottery to Glaisher has been documented by Julia Poole. Glaisher bought English delft from the Actons of Brighton in 1897, 1904, 1911 and 1917, and Stuart Acton despatched pieces on approval to Cambridge, which Glaisher bought in 1923 and 1924. See Julia Poole, 'Dr J.W.L. Glaisher, FRS (1848-1928), Mathematician and Collector', in Michael Archer, _Delftware in the Fitzwilliam Museum_, 2013.
Legal notes
Bequeathed by Dr J. W. L. Glaisher, 1928
