Our special collections include a range of rare art items.
Among these are the Sanderson Collection, a set of fashion-related illustrations, journals and memorabilia dating from 1770 to the 1950s. The Taphouse Collection which contains eighteenth century music scores, as well as a beautiful collection of Victorian songsheets and more.
The Gott bequest
A collection of 600 early English gardening books including works published in the 16th ,17th and 18th centuries. They originally belonged to Alderman Beryl Gott of the local textile manufacturing family and deposited in the Central library on her death in 1941.
Some examples include books about herbals, books on garden design, fine examples of hand coloured botanical illustrations and Curtis’s Botanical Magazine dating from 1787.
The Gascoigne collection of militaria
This collection of over 3,000 books, pamphlets and periodicals, covering mainly military and naval history, was donated in 1968 by Sir Alvary Gascoigne, in memory of his father, Colonel F.R.T. Gascoigne of Lotherton Hall.
Included are army and navy lists from the early nineteenth century, regimental histories and is a valuable source of information for researchers of 19th century military history.
The Leeds Pottery Drawing Books and Pattern Books
The Leeds Pottery Drawing Books were compiled and used in the Leeds factory as a guide and record of the products. They contain high quality pen and ink drawings and where enamelled products are recorded they are in watercolour.
The books date from 1778 to 1779. Of the 12 known drawing books, nine are owned by Leeds Libraries and Information Services and the other three are in the Victoria and Albert Museum.
The Pattern Books, dated between 1783 and 1814, form the printed trade catalogue of the factory. They contain a series of engraved plate designs selected from the Drawing Books issued with a key, or index, in several languages.
Boyne’s History of Leeds
William Boyne, 1814 to 1893, used T.D. Whitaker’s 1816 edition of Thoresby’s Ducatus Leodiensis and Whitaker’s Leodis and Elmete as the basis for his own collection of original material on Leeds. The set enlarges the original two volume version into seven volumes and includes many watercolours and drawings by local artists.
