The Desperate Negro

This story was first published in the United States in the late eighteenth century. It is grouped by scholars as an "anti-slavery" narrative. How closely this 1828 edition follows earlier ones, I do not know. It concerns a slave called Quashi who is a lifelong friend of his master with whom he grew up and who inherited the plantation. In a fight with his master, he cuts his own throat in order to avoid the shame of being whipped by his master. Priced at threepence, "The Portfolio, OF AMUSEMENT AND INSTRUCTION IN History, Science, Literature, the Fine Arts, &c." cost too much to be called a "Penny Dreadful", a slightly later type of popular story paper, but it shares the sensationalism of the Penny Dreadful.

The Portfolio No. 130 Nov. 1,1828 Price 3d.

"The Desperate Negro" conclusion

A rare watercolour by Midshipman William Skinner R.N.

William "Midshipman" Skinner is known today through the naval engravings and lithographs produced after his work. What the publishers did with his original drawings is unknown. This fine, original, signed watercolour is inscribed on the back as a portrait of Lestock Robert Reid (12 August 1799 – 27 October 1878) a Governor of Bombay from 1846 to 1847 under the East India Company. The little biographic material about Skinner indicates that around 1835 he was in the Gulf area of South Asia as was Reid, according to his Reid's own published memoir, "Indus".

Reid would have been 36 years old at the time the likeness was "taken" It is a credible portrayal of a thirty-six-year-old man and ties in with the little information we have. The inscription on the back misspells "Reid" as "Reed". It is not uncommon to know someone yet not how they spell their name.

Unframed.

Rare and perhaps unique as an autograph work by this skilled maritime artist. P.O.A. (price on application).

Lestock Robert Reid by William Skinner, July 1835. Reid was later Governor of Bombay (now Mumbai).

A VILLAGE STREET

This charming watercolour of a typical Scottish village was painted by Harold Storey. It might show Main Street in Symington, Ayrshire of which I show a screen capture from Google Streetview. I think the artist must have been standing to the right of where the Google camera was and was just outside the cottage on the extreme right where there is now shrubbery and had a view further down the road. He has shuffled things a bit for compositional reasons.