“the 1st thing she ever gave me”
I started working on just one sentence I read in Anne Lister's diary:
Wednesday 26 September 1832
“then called to inquire if Miss Walker was returned – yes! last night – sat with her from 12 50/” to 2 20/” – she had brought me a presse-papier from the marble works at Kendal”
After Miss Ann Walker returned from her trip to the Lake District in September of 1832 she brought a present for Miss Anne Lister. It seems it was the 1st ever present she gave her. It was a paperweight made of polished marble, bought in Kendal, a market-town situated on the border of today's Lake District National Park. Ann Walker indeed went to the Lake District with her cousin Catherine Rawson just like we saw it happen in Season 1 of Gentleman Jack. We know Anne did not follow Ann to Wasdale (a valley near Wastwater lake in the Lake District) and her going there was dramatized for the needs of the show.
Before Ann went on this trip, Anne and Ann had been enjoying each other’s company for just over a month. During that time Anne visited Ann frequently at her home at Lidgate; confiding conversations and gaining each other’s trust became a regular occurrence and the bond between them was growing stronger on a daily basis. However, buying a gift implied that the nature of that bond was likely to become even stronger in the future. Or at least, that was something Ann Walker was looking forward to.
A paperweight (press-paper or letter-press) – in French it's presse-papier – is a small heavy object whose purpose is to be placed on top of papers to keep them from blowing away. Any material can be used for its production, they can be more or less decorative, cheaper or more expensive, made as unique objects or on a mass scale. Workmanship, design, rarity, and condition determine a paperweight's value, and the ones made out of glass are often considered to be fine art.
I went reading on, checking through a couple of days later in Anne's diary hoping for some kind of description of this paperweight. No luck. There were some mentions though. Words in bold are bolded by me.
Later, on 26th September when Miss Lister got back home to Shibden after a whole day of work on her estate, she found Ann's manservant James with a note – Miss Walker asking her to return a couple of books she lent her, which Anne did and also replied:
“may I beg for my press-paper – now that you have given it me, I am impatient to have it – very truly yours, A Lister”
Two days later:
Friday 28 September 1832
“On my return home found on my desk parcel the Letter-press (presse-papier) and Note from Miss Walker – explaining about Collins, and that she should hope to find me in my walk between 3 and 5 – begins with “I have real pleasure in sending the letter-press, tho’ my own motive, and its possible utility are its only recommendations to your acceptance” – “
In the margin: “the 1st thing she ever gave me”
All transcription credits: Dorjana Širola
Before many questions I started asking myself about the paperweight, I couldn’t help noticing how appropriate, singled out and romantic this object would be as a present for Miss Lister. It confirmed my sentiments of Miss Walker as a person of good observations and excellent taste. Indeed an item more than harmonious with Miss Lister’s books and papers collection? I think so.
It would be thrilling to find out where this object is today, or if it ever left Shibden Hall. Unfortunately we don't know. Anne doesn't record at all what it looked like, she doesn't say what size or shape it is, is it just plain geometrical shape or more decorative and maybe a shape of an animal, flower, book etc. But there are some things I have managed to find out.
These websites (and many others) have been of great help:
http://www.stricklandgate-house.org.uk/historic-kendal/
https://www.feolifineart.net/artist.php?id=541
the page from Anne’s journal 28 September 1832
Credits: West Yorkshire Archive Service
These are screenshots from WYAS catalogue with the note made by Anne in the left margin of her journal page. The marginal note is also demarcated with two straight strokes of the pen from the rest of the text.
It seems she thought of adding this remark a bit later, after already filling the lines in the journal for that day, like she gave it extra thought and then noted it down this way.
Anne’s handwriting, in plainhand: “the 1st thing she ever gave me.”
Credits: West Yorkshire Archive Service
Francis Webster Sr.
Credits: stricklandgate-house.org.uk
Francis Webster (1767–1827) started a successful and well known architect's business in the north of England in the 2nd part of the 18th century. His speciality was the production of marble chimney-pieces and funerary monuments. He introduced two of his sons, George and Francis Jr., to the business. Around 1800 the firm started with water-powered machinery for cutting and polishing marble at their mill at Helsington Laithes on the river Kent (a few miles from the town of Kendal). The type of marble he would have quarried there was called Dent marble. The stone is not actually marble, it is a highly polished form of black limestone. Its beauty and ability to take a highly polished surface in its final form is, in large part, due to the high percentage of fossils that it contains.
A specimen of Dent Marble
Credits: Gallery Sedbergh, Cumbria
A Chessboard made of Dent Marble
Credits: museumsintheyorkshiredales.co.uk/dent-marble
The larger of the two mills (both of which would have closed down by 1895) polished locally mined limestone for ornamental use. It seems the Websters produced all sorts of objects (including paperweights) to advertise and market their architects' business. These objects would have been sold at the showroom at Marble Works, today's Bridge House restaurant in Aynam Road in Kendal.
Francis Webster Senior's most notable achievements surviving today are many buildings in Kendal: schools, churches, assembly rooms, banks, mills, bridges, monuments etc. The Websters also worked on the construction of the Lancaster canal, which opened in 1819 and closed in the 1960s.
Marble Works, Kendal
Credits: stricklandgate-house.org.uk
Marble Works in Kendal, designed and built in 1819 by Francis Webster, architect, as his offices and showroom, is today's Bridge House restaurant in Aynam Road. In 1832 Francis Jr. was in charge of the Marble Works.
This is where Ann bought the paperweight in September of 1832.
We don’t know if she bought it on her way to Eskdale or on her return home to Lidgate, Halifax. She could have stopt at Kendal at any point, it being an important stop on the trade routes towards the north.
George Webster’s (1797–1864) architectural designs include classical public buildings and gothic churches, but his most important and innovative buildings were Jacobean or Tudor Revival country houses, such as Eshton Hall, Gargrave and Underley Hall near Kirkby Lonsdale. He also built 13 churches in the Gothic Revival Style.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_works_by_George_Webster
St Mary's church in Rydal was also designed by George Webster, for Anne Frederica Elizabeth le Fleming (1784-1861), the Mistress of Rydal Hall at the time. When Anne visited Rydal in July 1824, the church was just about to be finished, and would be consecrated in December that year.
Paperweight made of Dent Marble
The only thing I am sure about the paperweight is that it was made of Dent marble, or more likely from smaller broken off pieces of Dent Marble, as slag in production. It could have been just a by-product of a more substantial industry so perhaps not a lot of artistry would have been invested in its crafting.
We don't know what the paperweight looked like. I imagine it looking like any of the examples on the photos I found online, although none of these are perfect.
From these examples it can be seen how marble takes on a nice polish. The object could have had sharp or canted edges; price would have also been a significant factor as well as a compromise between the practicality of the item and esthetics of the time. Perhaps even the fact that Anne didn't note down what it looked like suggests that it was a pure geometrical shape like the paperweights in these photos.
I haven't been able so far to find a photo of any paperweights produced by the Websters from Kendal.
Examples of paperweights Ann might have bought in September 1832, (all are made of marble, but not Dent marble):
Credits: Pamono.eu
Credits: britishfossils.co.uk
Credits: lot-art.com
Credits: Oxford Exchange
I like how the symbolic value of this object has been noted down by Anne in her diary entry. It was one of the first material tokens of love between Anne Lister and Ann Walker resulting in them taking the sacrament on Easter Sunday in York in 1834 and living together at Shibden Hall, Halifax.
My guess is that this paperweight is still somewhere at Shibden Hall, having lain unnoticed for decades on Listers' writing desks or on top of piles of papers in the library tower. Of course, it’s more than possible that it might be, as well ... lost forever.
