Do You Have a Confession to Make?
- 22nd March 2022
As we move gingerly towards the spring we thought it would be interesting to look at this lovely little ‘confessions’ book in our collections (BA8229/10(vi)) to celebrate some of the things that make us happy. This book highlights some of the participants’ favourite things, such as favourite food and drink, place to live, heroes in real life or in fiction etc.
Confessions Book BA8229/10 (vi)
The book, which is part of our Baldwin Family Collection, has entries from various family members including John Lockwood Kipling, the extraordinary nineteenth century artist and designer, his wife Alice McDonald Kipling, her sister Louisa and Louisa’s husband Alfred Baldwin, parents of Worcestershire’s 3-time Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin.
The book gives us a wonderful insight into the thinking and personality of its contributors as well as a hint to the tastes of some notable Victorians. Lockwood Kipling himself seems to have an incredible sense of humour with entries such as: Your idea of happiness ‘A ripe mango in my bath and Trichinopoly Cheroot’ and Your favourite names: includes Rudyard, illustrating another famous member of this well-connected and talented family.
Interesting too that his wife Alice points out that her favourite painter is Burne-Jones, acclaimed Pre-Raphaelite artist, and husband of another sister Georgiana.
Much more understated entries come from the Wilden industrialist and politician, Alfred Baldwin. His favourite occupation is stated as ‘minding my own business’.
And his wife’s Louisa chief characteristic is ‘dislike of interference’ and a pet aversion to ‘being questioned’!
The significance of this fascinating little book is illustrated by the fact that back in 2016 the book went on tour, firstly to the V&A in London (Jan-April 2017) and then to the Bard Graduate Center in New York (Sept, 2017-Feb,2018) as part of their exhibition “Lockwood Kipling: Arts and Crafts in the Punjab and London”. In their letter requesting the loan of the book the exhibition team said that ‘it would be a significant addition to our exhibition, offering unparalleled insight into their [John Lockwood and Alice Kipling] characters and opinions.
We are often blessed to see the output from great artists, designers, authors, and thinkers but archives can sometimes offer us a glimpse into the personality of the person behind the work.
So, as we move into the spring perhaps have a think about some of your favourite things and what they say about you.
Read about letters and diaries of the MacDonald sisters, also from this deposit in a previous blog.
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