[Rarebooks] FS: 1851 Illustrated Guide to Tasteful Gravestones

[Joslin Hall Rare Books]

TITLE: “The Churchyard Manual. Intended Chiefly for Rural Districts.”

By Hastings W. Kelke.
Published by C. Cox, London: 1851.London C. Cox: 1851.

DISCUSSION: An interesting reformer's text, meant to improve the character
and decoration of rural churchyards. Town churchyards were, the author
concludes, too crowded to admit of reform, but country grounds had no such
problem. They had other problems though- "too often they present a
neglected and an unbecoming appearance and still more frequently they
contain, and continue to receive, memorials of an objectionable
character".

Kelke includes 16 woodcut illustrations of tasteful gravestone and tomb
designs, and a complete list of suitable inscriptions and epitaphs. His
text covers cemeteries, and churchyard memorials and their decorations,
about which he has strong opinions:

- "The ornaments of some modern memorials give them a fantastic and
ridiculous appearance. A cherub's head, with puffed cheeks and outspread
wings, formed by one continuous line of clever flourishing, adorns the
upper part of the memorial, while the inscription, written in letters of
various shape and character, is also embellished with a profusion of
unmeaning flourishes. Such specimens of ornamental penmanship may be
necessary in the writing-master's copy book, but are utterly unbecoming
the gravity of sepulchral memorials. On the same principle gaudy colouring
ought to be excluded. Yet the undiscriminating mania for mediaeval taste
commends the one and condemns the other. A tomb, the receptacle of man's
perishing remains, should not be tricked out with gorgeously emblazoned
ornaments or illuminated letters, which give it a gaudy and flaunting
appearance, perfectly inconsistent with its real nature and purpose.
However brightened by the resurrection of our Lord, and robbed of its
terrors to the true Christian, the grave is still a solemn object".

DESCRIPTION: Hardcover. 4.5"x6.75", xii + 154 pages. Illustrated
frontispiece vignette of a country church with 16 text illustrations of
designs for headstones and tombs. Covers are publisher's original ribbed
black cloth with a blindstamped Gothic design gilt title.

The front endpaper has an old Gothic-design bookplate and a presentation
inscription to the Yorkshire Architectural Society from Rev. A.
(illegible) Ba(??)y". There is a tipped-in errata slip in front of the
preface.

CONDITION NOTES: There is a slight split in the outer hinge at the top,
and slight chipping to the spine head and base. There is a little light
internal soil, but overall in fine, bright condition.

PRICE: $400-

SOME PICTURES =>

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on the decorative and fine arts & design

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