Cotmania. Vol. IX. 1933-4

A Book of Cotman Drawings

J. S. Cotman of Reading [illegible 2 words] (aug: 1933) a book (15 x 10 ½ ) lettered on back + face 'Drawings and Etchings J. S. Cotman'
The bookplate is J.S.C, bookplate for Charles Nichols

CHARLES NICHOLS 1814—with coat of arms—3 ⅛ x 2 ⅛.

[Charles Nichols subscribed £3 to the Yarmouth Festival 1814 + presided at no. 3 table.

(1) a pencil drawing—[illegible 1 word] early Mrs J.S.C looking left 7 ¾ x6
(2)carefully written copy hand—

John Sell Cotman

Cotman, John Sell—Born in 1782—son of a Norwich silk [weaver]—he had the advantages of a good local education the enjoyment in childhood of [those] gentle scenes of [illegibile 1 word] garden, [tree and river] which made the Village of [illegible 1 word], a hamlet adjoining Norwich, so complete a [illegible 1 word] to its [busy streets]. He went to London [early] to perform the vocation he had chosen and spent some years in the study of art, returning to Norwich in 1807, when he joined the "Lovers of the arts" and painted diligently for their exhibitions. He soon after settled in Yarmouth as a drawing master, when his great ability attracted the attention of the late Mr Dawson Turner, who, as eminent for his encouragement of art as for his taste + success in the collecting of choice antiquarian and historical literature, became to him an invaluable friend.
His principal work 'The architecture of Normandy' was suggested by Mr Dawson Turner who had been [struck] [[by]] with the fine materials which abound in that [ilegible 1 word] for pictorial illustrations. after the work on Normandy was finished, Cotman.