The Redfern Scrapbook: A Process-Based Provenance Report

SPARC is pleased to bring you a guest post by Addie Joseph who was a Special Collections volunteer over the Summer of 2025. Addie spent the summer of 2025 in SPARC assisting with a major reorganization of our rare book library, and took on this major research project to help SPARC assess the background and provenance of our Redfern Scrapbook. Addie is currently pursuing an MS in Library & Information Services at the University at Albany and previously received her MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Oregon and BA in Journalism from Baruch College.
Two pages from a large scrapbook showing realistically rendered original paintings of gloves and armor in watercolor.
Drawings of Gloves by W.B. Redfern from the Redfern Scrapbook

This summer, a review of SPARC’s Oversize Monographs collection uncovered a hidden gem taking the form of a scrapbook of watercolor drawings, bookplates and publication clippings from the early twentieth century. The title on its red preservation box—the scrapbook’s spine has long eroded past the point of comprehension—reads “GLOVES AND SHOES, DRAWINGS AND PHOTOGRAPHS” and below attributes a single name, “REDFERN.” Inside of the box, the scrapbook’s pages feature 20 photographs and 58 careful trompe l’oeil renderings of gloves and shoes once owned or gifted by British royalty and nobility, like Henry VIII and Oliver Cromwell. These illustrations largely appear in a book by artist and antiquarian William Beales (W.B.) Redfern, published in 1904, Royal & Historic Gloves & Shoes. By now, the condition of the scrapbook leaves little indication that the original page order has been faithfully preserved. And, several pages have paper and glue residues where media once affixed there, were removed.

Two pages from a scrapbook showing the title page of a book with an illustration of a shoe, and a pamphlet about a book.
Inner Cover of the Redfern Scrapbook

The most intriguing features are the layers of clippings and annotations in the scrapbook. Attached to the inner cover is a publisher’s pamphlet for Royal & Historic Gloves & Shoes with an excerpt of the book’s front matter—its list of plates has penciled x’s beside numerous items. The opposite page has another such pamphlet listing praise for the book, while the inner back cover displays a lengthy newspaper review. Then, interspersed are clippings of auction house catalogs and newspaper articles referencing the objects illustrated, many of which date years after the publication of Royal & Historic Gloves & Shoes. Overlayed, most pages contain handwritten notes, detailing the attributes and tracking the ownership of the antique objects. It’s not clear if every marking was made by the original illustrator. This scrapbook, so thoughtfully made over the course of many years, sparks a first question: Who put this scrapbook together?—Was it all Redfern, or did a follower compile his work at a later time?

Fitting into SPARC

When members of SPARC opened the scrapbook, they saw that it was registered as a gift on August 3, 1972, based on this information being noted on the physical item. It’s clear the library had made efforts to preserve the scrapbook from the custom-fit preservation box bearing the Fashion Institute of Technology’s name on it, and had determined a call number for it, GT 2170 .R3a.  But, otherwise, there is no surviving documentation of the acquisition and no record of the scrapbook in the library’s online catalog. SPARC also has a first-edition copy of Royal & Historic Gloves & Shoes, registered as a gift on the same date as the scrapbook without further documentation—and bears the call number TS 2160 .R3. The differing call numbers serve to distinguish the unpublished, unedited scrapbook from the published book. That said, this still leaves a second question unanswered: How did the scrapbook end up in SPARC’s collection?

Undertaking Provenance Research

Provenance, another word for origin, describes an item’s story—its threads of ownership. In Provenance Research in Book History, David Pearson describes provenance research as an expanding discipline that gathers evidence of the interaction between books and their users to determine how a book has fit into the context of its owners’ lives to be referenced or bear influence on their work (Peason, 4). Provenance research, in this case, would foster an understanding of Redfern’s life and impact, which would in turn point to who—relative, friend, or loyal follower—might have contributed to the scrapbook’s annotations or inherited it to sell. This research could also further trace the movement of the scrapbook until its acquisition by SPARC in 1972. This type of work, however, can’t provide answers where the evidence has been destroyed, obscured or never existed in the first place. It’s also increasingly challenging to conduct online, when documents have not necessarily been digitized and made widely accessible. 

At the time of this essay’s publication, W.B. Redfern has no dedicated page on Wikipedia or significant biographical coverage across other sites. His page on the Royal Academy of Arts website includes only a brief list of publications. Several of Redfern’s watercolor drawings in the collection of the University of Cambridge’s Fitzwilliam Museum are noted to have been donated by the artist in 1916, while the Cambridge University Library Repository has an envelope of Redfern drawings, purchased from Deval and Muir booksellers in 1974. These records indicate that it’s possible Redfern also donated his scrapbook, or that the scrapbook could have passed through Deval and Muir before reaching its current home at FIT. Mentions of Cambridge also stand out in the preface of Royal & Historic Gloves & Shoes, where Redfern gives thanks to the photographers Messrs. Palmer-Clarke of Cambridge, whose logo appears on plates within the scrapbook.

Detail of a page of a scrapbook showing a black and white photograph of a shoe and an imprint of the photographers Messrs. Palmer-Clarke.
Palmer-Clarke, Cambridge photographic plate in the scrapbook

Other obstacles to finding legitimate and relevant sources stem from Redfern’s name. Redfern can be identified either with his initials, W.B. Redfern, or by his full name, William Beales Redfern—though occasionally his surname is misspelled as Redfarn, as it is in a 1902 clipping of The Queen, The Lady’s Newspaper, pasted in the scrapbook. Historically, the surname Redfern isn’t uncommon either, shared by various figures adjacent to the fine art and fashion worlds. 

First Discoveries

The first significant provenance research breakthrough was a 1934 Sotheby & Co. catalog of “the well-known & extensive collections formed by the late W. B. Redfern, Esq., J.P., D.L.” The honorary titles after Redfern’s name stand for Esquire, Justice of the Peace, and Deputy Lieutenant. These collection items—armor, weapons, other antiques and artworks—had been inherited by Lady Ryan of Hintlesham Hall, who is identified as Redfern’s step-daughter. A portrait of Redfern by the artist Vivian D. Ryan, reprinted from an August 1923 issue of The Connoisseur, precedes the catalog’s preface. Then, the preface chronicles Redfern’s life: born on December 7, 1840, trained in art under John Frederick Herring Jr. and settled in Cambridge in 1871 where he carried out his antiquarian research “with unfailing enthusiasm and with the eye of an artist.” Even more, the preface suggests that Redfern “might be described as the ‘father’ of all collectors of bygones” and was someone who others could turn to to examine their obscure antiques. Of his process, the preface shares this: “The provenance of everything he could trace was carefully noted down, generally with a drawing of the object in his notebooks.” This draws parallels to the scrapbook’s construction. However, none of Redfern’s artwork—certainly not the historic glove or shoe drawings missing from the scrapbook—is listed in the sales catalog.

Redfern’s connection to Cambridge is underscored by the visual archive Capturing Cambridge, managed by the Museum of Cambridge, which notes Redfern’s immediate family history and support of local theatre ventures there on its interactive map. Next, details about the Ryan family’s connection to Redfern can be found in a profile on Vivian Desmond Ryan on the Suffolk Artists website. It appears Vivian not only painted Redfern’s likeness, but, per the profile, “studied art at Cambridge under William Beales Redfern (1840-1923), who in 1911 was a visitor at Hintlesham Hall.” This quote makes the first source to provide a concrete death year for Redfern throughout this research process. Per the profile, Vivian’s mother was Ellen Amelia Ryan (nee Ellis) (1860-1935), the only daughter of an Augustus Thomas Ellis. She may have been the “Lady Ryan” named in the Sotheby & Co. catalog who became Redfern’s stepdaughter.

A Fuller Picture

To further clarify the relationships between the Redfern, Ryan and Ellis families, genealogy databases can provide a lot of insight. A family tree of this cross-section of the Ryan, Ellis, and Redfern families is included here to illustrate findings from documents accessed via Ancestry.com and newspaper articles accessed on Newspapers.com.

Portion of a family tree
Redfern-Ellis-Ryan family connections

First, an 1861 census shared on Ancestry.com lists Ellen A. Ellis as the sole child of Augustus T. and Sarah Ellis, as previously noted in the Suffolk Artists page (The National Archives, 1861). Then, an 1885 marriage record confirms Ellen Amelia’s marriage to Gerald Joseph Hemmington Ryan (Cambridgeshire Archives and Cambridgeshire, & Huntingdonshire Family History Society, 1885). A later census from 1911 includes Gerald Hemmington Ryan as the head of his family with Ellen Amelia Ryan listed as his wife, Gerald Ellis Ryan and Vivian Desmond Ryan as his sons, and, notably, Sarah Ellis and William Beales Redfern as visitors (The National Archives, 1911). On January 12, 1912 Augustus Thomas Ellis passed away, per a newspaper death notice (Saffron Walden Weekly News, 1912). Then, on February 6, 1913, W.B. and Sarah Ellis were married. He was 72 years old at the time and a bachelor, while Sarah Ellis was 75 and, of course, a widow (The London Archives, 1913). 

W.B. and Sarah Ellis were married for 10 years when they both passed in August 1923—Redfern on the 21st, after attending Sarah’s funeral earlier that day, per the Manchester Evening News. The brief announcement identifies Redfern as the managing director of the New Theatre, the former mayor of Cambridge, serving four consecutive years from 1883 to 1887 and “a collector of mediæval spurs and gloves of the Elizabethan period, on which he has written and published works” (Manchester Evening News, August 22, 1923). Prolific until his death, his writing appears in the same September-December 1923 issue of The Connoisseur where editor C. Reginald Grundy eulogizes Redfern as “not only a contributor but a warm and valued friend” (Grundy, 1923). Grundy’s article further details Redfern’s life and accomplishments, including past presidency of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society, and states that Redfern’s “extensive and interesting” collection would be “preserved as an heirloom by Sir Gerald Ryan, Bart., and by Lady Ryan, the latter of whom is Mr. Redfern’s stepdaughter” (Grundy, 1923).

Returning to the Scrapbook

The knowledge that Redfern’s provenance research interests were both unique among his peers and central to a life spent collecting, illustrating, and authenticating historic items brings a vital context to understanding the composition of the scrapbook in SPARC’s collection. This is made more apparent when observing that the same signatures and initials that accompany some illustrations in Royal and Historic Gloves and Shoes are in the scrapbook, joined with other writing (Redfern, 1904).

watercolor painting of a steel gauntlet
Steel Mitten Locking Gauntlet watercolor by Redfern from the scrapbook
book plate showing a watercolor painting of a steel gauntlet
Plate VI from Royal & Historic Gloves & Shoes

It stands to reason that the same hand and ink that signs “W.B. Redfern” on a drawing of a glove and identifies it as being “said to have belonged to King Henry VII,” also subtitles it in the third-person: “Frontpiece in W.B. Redfern’s ‘Royal & Historic Gloves & Shoes.’” This hand also tracks the movement of his subject: “These Gloves were sold at Messrs. Christie Manson & Woods for £120.15.0 . May 22. 1917,” with a clipping of the sales catalog advertising this item that references the provenance established by Redfern himself. The same hand that pencils an X  beside the reference to Redfern’s name (misspelled as “Redfarn”) in The Queen has ostensibly made the same markings beside catalog references to Redfern and the items in the list of plates. This tracking of the accomplishments of a career spent capturing the likeness and authenticating the origins of historic items, is all probably the work of one person: Redfern himself.

Watercolor of an ornate leather glove with annotations in handwritten ink and a clipping from a magazine article
Watercolor by W.B. Redfern from the scrapbook marked as ‘Frontispiece in W.B. Redfern’s “Royal and Historic Gloves and Shoes”‘
Closeup view of notations in ink written on a scrapbook.
Redfern scrapbook inner cover detail showing markings made in a black ink

The remaining outlying markings are on the inner front cover, made in a black ink that drips thick at the edges of letters and lines (a contrast to Redfern’s even handwriting). The biggest giveaway that this is not Redfern’s writing is that the stem of the “B” in his middle initial is traced over, which is inconsistent with how Redfern signs and initials his name in all other places. The pen scrawls “W. B. R. / Original Colour Drawings of Shoes for” above the pamphlet. Below and to the left in ostensibly the same hand is a date: “7/12/23.” In England, this would be read as Day/Month/Year, making it probable that the date comes after Redfern’s death on December 7, 1923.  Above this are notations made with a different pen, that can perhaps be read as “II / NW” and “D U –.” These markings, and possibly the appraisals of Redfern’s illustrations, feel foreign to the scrapbook’s maker—the notes likely of a seller.

Closeup of a page of a scrapbook showing a small label in red inscribed with "H. Johnson & Nephew"
H. Johnson & Nephew label on the inner cover

It’s just as this distinction is made, that a last clue is uncovered when a stray piece of red tape on the inner cover catches in the light, revealing faint lettering: “H. Johnson & Nephew St. Andrew’s St., Cambridge.” Per Capturing Cambridge, H. Johnson & Nephew were booksellers, stationers, and newsagents in Cambridge during the early twentieth century. This suggests that the scrapbook’s earliest transference of ownership may have been shortly after Redfern’s death in 1923 to this bookseller. Missing drawings with appraisals beside them may have been removed and sold individually by H. Johnson & Nephew or a later owner.

Future Directions

It’s most likely that Redfern was the original creator and owner of this scrapbook; after his death in August 1923, it was probably inherited with his collection by Ellen Amelia Ryan (Lady Ryan) and her husband Sir Gerald Ryan, who could have transferred ownership of the item to H. Johnson & Nephew later that year in December. There’s no accessible record of the life this scrapbook had in the nearly fifty years that passed until SPARC received it (and the copy of Royal & Historic Gloves & Shoes) in 1972. The scrapbook may have inspired the work of a fashion industry figure; it may have been spied by an FIT faculty member on vacation and brought to the library for safekeeping; it may have been retrieved by a Ryan-Ellis-Redfern descendent retracing their history—these and other explanations are all equally possible. 

If H. Johnson & Nephew’s sales records still exist, they may be found in a collection akin to the Museum of Cambridge’s, which collects items relevant to Cambridge’s social history. This  could provide confirmation or disproval of the scrapbook’s immediate movement. Another potential thread lies in the envelope of Redfern drawings in the Cambridge University Library Repository, purchased from Deval and Muir in 1974. If Deval and Muir had access to other Redfern works, their 1960s and 1970s sales and auction catalog records, located in the Bodleian Libraries Repository, may provide answers about the scrapbook’s history. But, short of getting on a plane to England, it’s not likely further answers can be found from New York.

In his lifetime, William Beales Redfern was a student and teacher of art, a provenance researcher, a mayor, a theatre manager, a president of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society, an author of books and articles, and received the honorary titles of Esquire, Justice of the Peace, and Deputy Lieutenant. His work is marked by a dedication to understanding and preserving local histories—in the case of the scrapbook and published book, fashion history. Knowing who took an interest in Redfern’s work after his passing can show us how it continued to impact and inform research or instruction activities related to fashion and history. And, it can suggest how the scrapbook will continue its life at SPARC.

Dig Deeper

Related Posts