[KEENE, Flora, owner]. PUNCH’S POCKET BOOK for 1861. ~ Containing ruled pages for cash accounts and memoranda for every day in the year. An Almanack... the illustrations of John Leech and John Tenniel. London: Bradbury & Evans for Punch, [1860].
16mo (120 × 80 mm), pp. [2], 139, [4], 142-192, folding wood engraved frontispiece and additional title, both hand-coloured, 6 wood engraved plates and numerous vignettes. The account book and diary section very fully completed, mainly in pencil in a minute (and often illegible) hand. Original limp roan wallet binding. Lightly rubbed. Early pencil inscription: ‘Flora A. Keene from her dear brother Will’.
This little pocket book has been densely filled with diary notes by a young girl or young woman, presumably one Flora Keene. She copies out several hymns at the opening, and then completes every day of her diary, with dense and minute notes, now very hard to read, mainly noting family comings and goings. The frontispiece by John Leech entitled ‘Volunteer Movement — Jones & Family go under Canvas’ is a satire on the British volunteer rifle corps, formed in 1859 as a response to public fears of a French invasion. There is also a series of delightful vignettes by Tenniel on Shakespearean quotations.