Description: Landscape, 26 x 17.5cm. Cloth cover and leather spine, spine leather was black but becoming greenish in its decay. Cloth brown, beige, faded. Looks very similar to the Cranstone sketchbook.Page 1 (Left): Inside the back cover are a few small pencil sketches, one of a horizon line, one of a dinghy. There is a stamp on yellow paper: “WINDSOR & NEWTON / Manufacturing / ARTISTS’ COLOURMEN / To Her Majesty / & H.R.H.THE PRINCE CONSORT / 38, Rathbone Place, London. W.’ Page 2 (Right): BlankPage 3 (Left): Pencil sketch with a bridge to the left with crisscross pattern, church spire in distance, trees to right and mountain range beyond. Page 4 (Right): BlankPage 5 and 6: Double page watercolour of Campbell Sunday School and its reflection in a pond, more colour notes. The Sunday School has a red door, is very sandy brown in colour with a light teal roof. Roughly drawn. There are other buildings behind it and a cluster of trees to the right. Clouds behind indicated with squiggly lines. On grass is handwriting ‘Green.’ To the left, where the sketch runs out is written: ‘Window frame Red, door Red,’ and ‘Building light drab.’Page 7 (Left): Blank Page 8 (Right): Landscape pencil sketch of a bridge crossing the Maitai river, looking in the direction of town and the sea. In the distance are some house tops and a “Pukatia tree”. There is a tiny man and woman on the bridge who seem to be watching a person on the riverbank fishing. There is a cart parked next to the fisherman or woman. This is an area that Edwin drew multiple times in the Briant and Cranstone notebooks.Pages 9 and 10: Two sketches, one in watercolour that continues from the left page onto half of the right, another other in pencil (upside down) in the right page. Next to the pencil study of plants is handwritten: “stems grey brown” and “dark green” inside one of the plants. The watercolour is of a path, with a crisscross feature on it, beside a pond or river and a clear blue sky, green hills, and dark green trees.Page 11 (Left): Portrait pencil sketch of two girls standing in front of a tree on path leading to house. The perspective is zoomed quite close and cropped, in left side of frame is the edge of the house, there is a staircase leading up, a big tree in the middle of the frame, and shrubs to right with the suggestion of another house. The older of the two girls has a bow tied at the back of her dress, they have their backs to the viewer. Page 12 (Right): Some faint pencil lines that could be the beginnings of a sketch of some trees.Page 13 (Left): Landscape pencil sketch of a small bridge over a river. The bridge has an arch with a lantern on it. Hills behind. Looks like Maitai river from Nile St, facing the hills on East side of town. Page 14 (Right): Landscape pencil sketch on blue-green paper. A sketch of a tree and the Maitai river with hills and a few houses behind, written in pencil at bottom is “Pukatia Tree” and “Maitai River.” It appears to be drawn from the opposite perspective of the sketch on page 8, this time looking out from the tree to the hills.Page 15 and 16. A double page watercolour on green paper. A foreshore bay scene, hillside with the clay cliffs and buildings below are reflected in the water of the bay. The building is a brick red colour with white detailing and two gables with a central tower. There is a white frame over the road before the building. The sea is glass flat, light blue summer sky with hazy clouds. Steam can be seen on the horizon. Quite vivid colours and careful detailing on building fronts and lampposts.Page 17 and 18: A double page pencil sketch with the left hand page on blue paper. The scene is of the waterfront, small single gable houses to the right with a chicken out front and nets drying over a fence, the road curving away, wooden sea wall, a wooden shed in the background. Dinghy resting on sand, ship with sails heading away from the dock, lighthouse in distance, lots of sea and sky.Page 19 (Left): Pencil sketch of people on the deck of a boat. There is a man at steering wheel, in the foreground are two small girls dressed up (wearing hats and hair curled) and possibly their mother in Victorian dress. In the background, behind the man steering, are three men, two sitting down and one standing. Text at bottom of page reads: “on board the Taranaki, 1870, Xmas.” Page 20 (Right): Pencil sketch of a moored boat on the shore. Can see the anchors, a line of buildings to the left above the sea wall, a few other dinghies in the distance.Page 21 and 22: A double page watercolour and pencil sketch of Nelson foreshore with Fifeshire Rock / Arrow Rock featuring prominently on the left in the middle distance and Haulashore Island on the right. There is a man with a stick to far right and in the far left a girl looking out to sea.Page 23 and 24: A double page pencil sketch of a road along the Nelson waterfront, Fifeshire Rock in the distance. To the left are some houses behind the road, a man with a horse and cart, the hill goes up behind the houses and on the other side of the road drops down to shore. There is a jetty and some people (maybe three children?) on the beach. There is Haulashore Island on the right and a ship sailing in the harbour.Page 25 and 26: A double page pencil sketch, partially coloured. A scene of a pond or river with ducks, trees surrounding, animals grazing and the tops of houses can be seen in the distance before mountain ranges.Page 27 (Left): Pencil sketch of two houses, each with one gable, amongst trees, a lamppost in bottom right corner. Partially coloured: the trees on the left hand side have been coloured with greens and golds. Page 28 (Right): Pencil sketch with some colour, swans and ducks in pond in the foreground, the sun rising or setting over hills, a few cows in a field coloured brown.Page 29 and 30: A double page landscape watercolour looking down on a hop farm against a backdrop of the Nelson mountain ranges. A river curves around in the bottom right corner. Looks to be evening – a few clouds in sky with golden streaks, hills range from green washes on left, darker grey, through to ochre on right. Faint handwriting in bottom right reads “April 6th”. This is one of the three versions of this scene in Edwin’s sketchbooks, a pencil sketch in this notebook on pages 35 and 36 contains greater detail and is drawn from closer to the fields. A watercolour on pages 5 and 6 in the Cranstone notebook is very similar to this one but is again closer to the fields and contains faint pencil sketches of the crops. These versions bear a close resemblance to Edwin Harris’s earlier painting ‘Hop picking in the Maitai’, suggesting that he continued to have an interest in this particular landscape.Page 31 (Left): Pencil sketch, can just make out the lines of hills in background and three figures in foreground standing by something. It resembles a more detailed sketch in the Cranstone notebook on page 27 of three women at a table Page 32 (Right): Carefully drawn pencil sketch of Dr. Bush’s windmill on the banks of the Maitai River, with Nelson buildings in the background, a bird flying past, and two trees in the foreground.Page 33 (Left): Faint beginnings of a pencil sketch (upside down). Some hills in the background, posts sticking up in a body of water, a bridge. Page 34 (Right): Watercolour landscape. A body of water reflecting trees, hills, scrub and ferns and the sky above. A faint rainbow ends on the top of a hill. The colours carefully done – from browns to peaches to greens to golden colours and blues. Colour notes written in pencil, in sky ‘grey cloudy,’ on hill, ‘yellow & grey’.
Page 35 and 36: Double page landscape on blue-green paper in pencil. A more detailed version of the watercolour on pages 29 and 30, closer to the hop crops with more detail on the crops, the distant houses, and the winding Maitai river. The sketch is similar to Edwin Harris’s earlier ‘Hop picking in the Maitai’ painting. Some colour notes are written in the sky: ‘A – light brown B – [two words[ C – [blue?] D – [one word] white.’.Page 37 (Left): Pencil sketch of a flax on blue-green paper. Colour notes read: “flower brown, flax [something] chocolate, leaves grey”. Page 38 (Right): Rough pencil sketch (upside down) of trees, hills, a small cow and two small figures walking out of the frame left hand side.
Page 39 (Left): The beginnings of a sky watercolour, blues and blank spaces left for clouds. Page 40 (Right): Unfinished landscape pencil sketch. Two people in front right corner, backs to us, a man reclined and a woman who is writing and drawing, and looking out to scene of paddocks and hills. You can see the roof of a small house which has been coloured yellow, brick red chimney. Otherwise, the sketch is uncoloured.Page 41 (Left): Watercolour foreshore scene with a small green rigged boat and a grey wooden shed. There is a plank going from ship to shore on which stand two figures, talking to a woman on shore. There is a person on the boat. A few dinghies on the shore. Page 42 (Right): Watercolour bush scene with what might be a riverbank in front. Dark and light greens, a brown hill in the background. Perspective grid lines still visible.Page 43 and 44: A double page watercolour with equal parts land and sky, a little house in top left corner with row of trees behind and road curving into view. Right hand side looks down past a pond, and through the converging hills to a little triangle of sea (in the centre of the right page), with blue line of ranges in distance. There is a fence to right suggesting another road.Page 45 (Left): Watercolour of green trees, hillside, the top of a house is just visible peeping through amongst the foliage with an uncoloured roof. Page 46 (Right): Landscape watercolour of seaside. Three people walk in the distance, a man and woman together and another woman beside them, walking on the sandy shore at low tide. Can see the sea wall beyond them, steep hill with trees going up to the right, 2-3 ships in harbour to the left. There are also 2-3 people in the foreground of the drawing, bottom right corner, have hats and there is a sun umbrella and a green blanket or towel on the ground. Rocks. There might be a child looking under a rock.Page 47 and 48: Double page landscape pencil sketch of a waterhole in the Maitai river and the surrounding trees and hills. Two or three people are swimming, one floats on back, one is freestyling through the water, feet kicking, and two people are resting on bank of river. To the right, more trees and hills. See ‘Denny’s[sic] Hole, Maitai River,’ photograph by F N Jones (b.1881, d.1962). The view of Denne’s Hole has similar landmarks. Page 49 (Left): Portrait pencil sketch of a willow tree. Page 50 (Right): Pencil sketch of seven people rowing a boat. At least four are women. Two wear hats and are facing the viewer. Others have their back to the viewer. A roughly drawn lighthouse is on the right and there are other boats in the water to the left.Page 51 (Left): Landscape sketch with some light watercolours. The view is looking towards the harbour from the road, the top of a ship’s rigging is visible over the line of bushes, its flags flying, and sea and sky behind. Page 52 (Right): Landscape watercolour, carefully framed to focus on a woman in white walking through a cultivated path with a blue roofed house in centre in background and surrounding foliage. Tree branches form an arc over the path and woman.Page 53 (Left): Landscape watercolour (upside down). The view looks over dirt road, to a white fence, then a paddock, a line of bushes, a house to right, then the rest of town towards the foothills. Blue sky. Richmond church spire is visible. Page 54 (Right): Landscape pencil and watercolour sketch. A body of water before a red house, another smaller house or building with a blue roof, and golden hills behind. Red house and trees are reflected in water. There is also a little study of the house drawn in pencil at the bottom of the page.Page 55 (Left): Landscape watercolour. Two people standing next a body of water with some willow trees. There is a lighthouse in the distance, beyond the inlet, a sun and clouds are penciled in the sky. The two people look like a woman and a young girl, looking out to sea, holding hands. The woman has a dark coat, a hat, boots and a pink-red skirt. The girl has a lighter pink top and darker pink skirt, light coloured hair down her back. Could these be the same two as in Frances’ card? Unfinished, perspective lines still visible. Page 56 (Right): Some faint lines that look like they could be the start of a landscape drawing.Page 57 and 58: Double page watercolour of seascape and skyscape, a green ship to the far right with two passengers and someone standing on shore next to it. Looks like the two on board are women, one carrying a sun umbrella, in dresses, they seem to be disembarking. Person on shore is a man, wearing a hat. Nelson hills in various shades of green in the distance on other side of harbour. Grey wooden planks lie on the sand in the foreground.Page 59 and 60: Double page sketch of a dinghy resting on seabed. Ocean in the background.Page 61 (Left): Landscape pencil sketch of a two story house with veranda, surrounded by several trees. There are white accents on roof dotted with white paint. Page 62 (Right): Landscape pencil sketch of the same house, plus two others, with the perspective from further back with surrounding farmland. Hills are in the distance. A building to the left has white smoke coming out of its chimney and a curving road entering the foreground.Page 63 (Left): Landscape watercolour. Foreground of yellow-brown ground, a fence, and some trees at a higher level than the Maitai river down on the left, surrounded by trees and with a distant white bridge over the water. In the distance is a white house ahead of a background of hills. This appears to be in the same area that Edwin drew numerous times, featuring the distant house that appears in the sketch on page 14 of this sketchbook but from a perspective closer to the bridge itself. Page 64 (Right): Landscape pencil sketch of Richmond Church, framed by trees on either side, and with a gate and hedge in front. Caption at the bottom reads ‘Richmond Church’.Page 65 (Left): Some faint pencil lines that could have been the beginning of a sketch. Page 66 (Right): Landscape pencil and watercolour sketch. Seascape, two people sitting behind a big rock on the shore, two distant figures on the edge of the water, a boat out to sea, and yellow and grey hills in the background.
