E. BONNEY STEYNE

THE MYSTERIOUS POET AND CRITIC
E. BONNEY STEYNE
BY
BARRY VAN-ASTEN

 

 

E. Bonney Steyne or the initials E.B.S., is a name which mysteriously re-occurs throughout certain periodicals of the eighteen-nineties: ‘The Artist’ and ‘The Studio’ particularly; it is obviously a pseudonym for I have been unable to find any such person on record as E. Bonney Steyne. The initials, E.B.S., I believe, are either genuinely the initials of the author, or simply made up. Mysteries are troubling, and it is not my intention to solve the conundrum, merely to point out the mystery and make a few suggestions as to whom the author known as E. Bonney Steyne, or ‘E.B.S.’ may be. I will come to my own conclusion as to the author’s identity, which of course, you are perfectly entitled to disagree with and disprove, in due course.

In the many published articles E.B.S. writes well with authority upon various subjects of art, from painting, illustration, design and architecture, and even the Theatre. (1)

We do know that E.B.S. is a friend of the art connoisseur Joseph Gleeson White, who is the editor of The Studio and that both men are well-acquainted with the painter, Henry Scott Tuke (1858-1929). E.B.S. visited Tuke at his studio, Pennance Cottage, near Swanpool beach, Falmouth in the summer of 1895 and said that his place of work was ‘devoid of ornament, outside or in’ and had an ‘appropriate nautical flavour suggested by a most ingenious arrangement of ropes, which turn out to be, not rigging as you first thought, but a complicated system of cords for adjusting the many blinds of the roof and windows to the required light’. (Studio, V, 27. June 1895. p. 93) The critic questioned Tuke on several points of interest relating to his career and then they both walk to the beach beyond the headland of Pennance Point, the setting for many of his paintings depicting the beauty of youth on the coastal landscape. Following further discussion, they walked back to the quay and to Tuke’s floating studio before heading off to Falmouth Art Gallery, which Mr. Tuke, along with the painter, William Ayerst Ingram (1855-1913), was instrumental in starting, to see his exhibition there. (2)

E.B.S. has some fascinating things to say on female artists and champions their work upon its own merit, for example, on the illustrator, Mary L. Newill, he picks up on her style which resembles the early woodcut and says that she ‘reduces forms to simplicity, and is more occupied with the pattern than imitation of Nature’ (Studio, V, 26. May 1895. p. 59); of her embroidery, he stresses that they are a ‘mosaic of colour entirely’ and that her work is a ‘reduction of fact to symbols’. (p. 60) On Elizabeth Stanhope Forbes he goes further and defends her talent as an artist in her own right and not because she has married a fellow, successful artist of the Newlyn school, which he believes is a ‘misnomer’ (Studio, IV, 24. March 1895. pp. 186-192). Mrs. Forbes shows E.B.S. her ‘movable studio’ at her Newlyn home and calls her work – ‘strong, wholesome art, able to hold its own.’ E.B.S. has some interesting thoughts on the fallibility of the trained and untrained art critic and their inflated opinions as to what is good art, for ‘only the future (judging from the past) will select its own favourites’; he goes on to say that ‘neglected and unpopular painters in their own day sometimes continue unknown, even in a day like the present, bent on dragging hidden genius to light, and on rewarding every outburst of eccentricity or of genuine merit with fulsome adulation, we know there are those working among us, some popular, others absolutely disregarded by the most advanced as well as the most conventional critics, whose works future generations will appreciate as honest and typical examples of the best influences of their period; (p. 188) this is certainly a prophetic statement which we ourselves can recognise today. (3) His remarks show a well-informed sense of style and taste as can be seen from the following passage on the ‘Decoration of the Printed Book’ (Magazine of Art, XX, March 1897, p. 278) in which he says that ‘the construction of a really perfect book is far more likely to be achieved by avoiding blemishes than by including merely decorative adjuncts. The creed of splendid simplicity is never a popular one, and in the days of cheap blocks and ambitious young designers, the danger of over-doing ornament is more than ever one which lurks close at hand.’ He then says, quite sensibly and rightly, that ‘common sense with good taste sums up nearly all that makes for art, in a book, or any other object of craftsmanship.’ (p. 278), (4)

From the style of writing in his poetry, we can gather that E. Bonney Steyne or E.B.S. is, like so many of the contributors to The Artist, The Studio, and The Spirit Lamp, ‘uranian’ in his outlook, that is, he likes to extol the beauty of youth, particularly male beauty:

THE LAST SECRET

 
From young Greek lips a whisper fell
Across the glowing softened dusk
The secret of all things to tell
From young Greek lips a whisper fell
On ears that heard it all too well;
Mid scent of ambergris and musk
From English lips again it fell
And echoed sweetly through the dusk.
 
So Saadi in the garden heard
So Marlowe caught it in the town
The old sweet air that softly stirred
So Saadi in the garden heard.
In London bustle ‘tis inferred
By Southern seas it ripples on,
The sweetness of the one sweet word
Lights both the country and the town.
 
Yet only is it perfect still
Because it never has been spoken.
The moment comes, the impatient will
Would fain discover all, until
The moment passes, with a thrill
And, leaves the secret all unbroken
In perfect peace secure and still
Imagined, heard, yet never spoken.

 [by E. Bonney Steyne. The Artist, volume 13, number 153, 1^st August 1892, p. 227]

 

The word that ‘never has been spoken’ is very similar to the phrase, ‘the love that dare not speak its name’ which was the final line to Lord Alfred Douglas’s 1892 poem, ‘Two Loves’; but Douglas’s poem was written in September 1892, a month after the appearance of ‘The Last Secret’ – could the poem by E. Bonney Steyne have influenced Douglas?  Two Loves did not appear until the first and only edition of The Chameleon of December 1894 which was edited by the Oxford undergraduate of Exeter College, John Francis Bloxam (1873-1928) and the magazine would play its part in the downfall of Oscar Wilde the following April when the prosecution began. (5)

Gleeson White and E. Bonney Steyne both have a deep interest in interior design and furniture as can be seen by their articles in ‘Work: An Illustrated Magazine of Practice and Theory for all Workmen, Professional and Amateur’. (6) Gleeson, like Bonney Steyne, sometimes strays into writing verse, his poems show a marked knowledge of poetical technique and are often quite humorous and witty; take the following poem, signed ‘G.W.’, from The Artist [volume 14, number 160, 1^st March 1893, p. 67], ‘Ballade of the Young Man of the Period’ in which he describes the young gentleman as taking ‘life in its sordidest hues’ and ‘paints his room in the greenest of blues, / at the play looks the saddest of sads, / dances little, but loves to refuse. / Raves a bit o’er a Japanese fan; / yet would culture’s sweet brightness diffuse, / the young nineteenth century man!’ The final verse continues with the same humorous wordplay:

 
In costumes, he bars, checks or plaids;
In books, “liketh much to confuse”
Herbert Spencer with Kipling, and adds:
Some very electic reviews;
Creeds or churches he mostly eschews;
And athletics, once dear to our lads,
But to study him does not amuse,
The puzzle is, where he began?
But like riddles deprived of their clues
Is the young nineteenth century man.

 

An earlier example of Gleeson White’s poetry can be found in Parodies of the Works of English and American Authors by Walter Hamilton, volume I, 1884 – ‘The Monthly Parodies. An Apology’ written after William Morris’s “Earthly Paradise” by J.W. Gleeson White, Christchurch, March 1884, p. 65 which ends: ‘So with these many Parodies it is, / if you will read aright and carefully, / nor scathing satire, nor malicious hiss / for lack of beauty in the themes to see, / nor jeerings coarse, at what men prize, as we / but jest to make some little changeling play / its pranks in classic robes, all crowned with bay.’ Also in The Bookmart can be found similar verse: ‘Ballade of the Great Unread’ (volume VI, number 67, December 1888, p. 361), ‘Ballade of Russian Novels’ (volume VI, number 68, January 1889, p. 417) and ‘At a Two Penny Book Stall’(volume VI, number 69, February 1889, p. 473). Another example of a poem by ‘G.W.’ is the following four line verse ‘Up Parnassus’ from The Artist [volume 13, number 157, 1^st December 1892, p. 358]: ‘From the first plateau do not downward peer / to note with pride its height; but persevere / for from the peak itself this noble place / part of the dull dead level will appear.’ The tone of the author appears quite mocking and the same note of mockery can be found in an article by E.B.S. in the same edition of The Artist (pp. 73-74) – ‘In Consequence of Mr. Traill’ which he begins by saying ‘All the world knows what happens to one who divulges the secrets of Freemasonry. Possibly as terrible a fate awaits the betrayer of the passport to the Brotherhood of Poets, a new organization, not alas! a product of the Wild West.’ He then goes on to rant over other magazines such as the Magazine of Poetry in which one has ‘to send your “photo” to be processed (with a fee), to allow your poems to be quoted “by kind permission of the author”,’ He sneers at such things, which seem quite familiar to us now, and then goes on to suggest that a ‘certain circular is on its way, that shall make Yankee folly appear almost sensible by comparison.’ We are then shown a mock legal document with spaces to be filled in by the applicant to be an Honorary Member of the Brotherhood of Poets and to ‘obey the rules’ and enclose a Postal Order for the ‘entrance fee and first year’s subscription or life commutative fee.’ E.B.S. defends the poor unknown minor poets, apparently ‘four and twenty’ of them, ‘never yet heard singing even in a printer’s pie.’ He ends the piece, saying severely that ‘when the effrontery of this ridiculous affair thrusts itself under one’s nose, ere it passes to the waste-paper basket.’ But perhaps something soothing in poetic form shall rinse the bile dripping from otherwise sweet lips –

 

 RETROSPECTION

 
To me Love held a crystal globe wherein
I saw my secret wishes mirrored plain,
The rapture of the vision made me fain
To grasp its beauty and myself to win
Tho’ bought with bitter agony or sin,
The rapture of that moment; for its gain
To count no misery, nor any pain
So to enjoy I might at once begin.
 
But he who held it smiling said ‘Not so,’
‘Tis but a vision of thy own lost power
What time in very sooth Love’s rose-hung bower
Opened for thee, when blind thou dids’t not know
And far in other ways woulds’t idly go.
Now none can bring again that bygone hour.

[by E.B.S., The Artist, volume 13, number 155, 1^st October 1892, p. 291]

 

DAPHNIS

 
To all the world what you may seem
I know not neither do I care
To me you are a waking dream
Fulfilling all things sweet and fair.
 
The world may prize you or disdain,
You are my world; the only thing
That sways my life, one perfect gain
The only pleasure without sting.
 
Your love shines on me like a sun
And in its rays reveals my youth,
For one I live, and love that one
With loyalty and perfect truth.

[by E.B.S., The Artist, volume 13, number 156, 1^st November 1892, p. 325]

 

In another poem, ‘Two’, the poet E.B.S. seems to be consumed by the extraordinary beauty of two figures on the sea shore; either E.B.S. is drawing upon an actual encounter where he witnessed the scene during the summer of that year (1893) or he is inspired by a painting depicting two figures. I believe he is recounting a memory from the ‘tangled world’.

 

TWO

 
Two that embrace the beauty of the earth
From light to shade
Morning and evening since its primal birth
None lovelier made.
 
One with an amorous coronal of golden hair
Eyes that are as the sky mid storm cloud rift,
Clean limbed, proportioned exquisitely rare
Like Ganymede the eagle borne, the gift
Of Earth to Heaven, one’s feelings backward drift
To all the splendour of the gods of Greece
Here in the tangled world awhile adrift
Incarnate imagery of Love and Peace.
 
One with a movement undulating sweet
As lazy breakers by a summer shore
Flesh for the warmer Southern kisses meet
Eyes that are fireflies mid dark hellebore;
With purpling curls that fall in clusters o’er
A face that is the splendour of the South
When all its beauty waxes more and more
Into the ripeness of the curving mouth.

[by E.B.S., The Artist, volume 14, number 167, 1^st October 1893, p. 297]

 

It has been suggested [Impressionists in England: The Critical Reception, edited by Kate Flint, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1984, [2016 ed.]: ‘Monet’s Sketches’, The Studio, Sept 1893, pp. 243-244, by E.B.S.] that the author of the article on Monet by E.B.S. (in The Studio), which by the way he prophetically suggests that ‘England is not ready to fully accept… as a pioneer of landscape painting’, is ‘almost certainly by Eveline Byam Shaw’. This is incorrect as the style of the article is the same as other critical analysis by E.B.S. and anyone familiar with the author’s writing need only read his articles on Henry Scott Tuke, Eleanor Brickdale or George Frampton to see that the author, although familiar with the Newlyn School of Art, is most definitely male and not Eveline Byam Shaw (1870-1960) (7) Nor is the author Eve Blantyre Simpson (1855-1920), as suggested by  Kyriaki Hadjiafxendi and Patricia Zakresk in reference to ‘The Paintings and Etchings of Elizabeth Stanhope Forbes’ by E.B.S., The Studio, volume 4, number 24, March 1895, pp. 186-192. (8)

We must also rule out the artist, Edward Brice Stanley [E.B.S.] Montefiore (1855-1918) for quite obvious reasons when one looks at his work, he simply does not fit. I must admit, I was side-tracked for a moment into believing E.B.S. could perhaps be the eminent homeopathic doctor, painter and sculptor, Edward Barton Shuldham [E.B.S.] (1837-1924) merely on the use of his initials on the publication of his twin nephew artists’ book – ‘Pictures from Birdland’ (London, J. M. Dent & Co. 1899) by Charles and Edward Detmold with ‘ryhmes by E.B.S.’, I think also the fact that both artists, Charles Maurice Detmold and Edward Julius Detmold, who were born on 21^st November 1883, both committed suicide, Charles at his home, Inglewood Road, Hampstead, on 9^th April 1908 by chloroform, and Edward on 1^st July 1957 by shooting himself in the chest, aroused suspicions (9).

Gleeson White’s friend and editing partner in the Bell’s series of Cathedrals, Edward Fairbrother Strange (1862-1929), who was curator at South Kensington Museum and an authority on Japanese prints, also had poems and articles printed in various periodicals, such as The Artist, and the Magazine of Art [‘The Habit does not Make the Monk’, volume 14, 1891, p. 344] and these from The Studio: ‘The Rood-Screen of South Pool Church’ [The Studio, volume 4, number 24, March 1895, pp. 192-197], ‘Some Old Wrought Iron Work’ [The Studio, volume 12, number 58, January 1898, pp. 247-251] and ‘Patterns From Suffolk Rood-Screens’ [The Studio, volume 15, number 70, January 1899, pp. 241-247]. Here is an example of a poem by Edward Fairbrother Strange, who sometimes wrote under the initials: ‘E.F.S.’:

LOVE AND LIFE
After the picture by G. F. Watts, R.A., in South Kensington Museum.

 
Oh, Love! the way is hard!
Give me thy hand. I dare not stand alone
On these rough crags, with wounded bleeding feet,
I scarce dare look, yet hear thy pinions beat,
And long to take thy heart-strength for my own.
Oh, help me, Love! the way is very hard.
And Love bent down
Into Life’s soul with pitying tender smile,
And took her hand and led her forth, the while
He whispered sweetest hopes in accents fair
Of melody so pure, not all the blare
Of the wild storm could drown.
Sweet Life:
Who would’st not live without me for a day;
Yet triest wilfully to rise alone
On these rough crags of sharp remorseless stone:
Lo, I am here and will for ever stay.
Sad Life:
Look ever in my eyes and learn to live;
Hold ever fast my hand and learn to love;
And I will lead thee to a pleasant land
Of fair smooth ways and paths, far, far above
These rocky cliffs, that glaring trackless sand,
There wilt thou know what Love to Life can give,
There Love is Life and Life is only Love,
Sweet Love!

[by Edward F. Strange, The Artist, volume 9, number 99, 1^st March 1888, p. 67] 

 

I find there are several parallel consistencies between E.B.S. and that other great art critic and connoisseur of aesthetic taste, Joseph William Gleeson White (1851-1898). It is said that Gleeson White and E. Bonney Steyne, or ‘E.B.S.’ are friends with and both have an appreciation and a great belief in the work of Henry Scott Tuke; White (who sometimes writes under the initials ‘J.G.W.’ or ‘G.W.’) and E.B.S. enjoy designing and crafting usable works of art, such as furniture and decorative furnishings; both write interesting and informative critical analysis of artistic works in various forms, from printing, painting and enamelling to literary works; both have their work published in the same periodicals – The Artist, The Studio, Work: An Illustrated Magazine, etc. Joseph Gleeson White spent a year in the United States in New York where he edited the magazine, ‘Art Amateur’ from November 1890 – In a notice in the periodical ‘Work: An Illustrated Magazine of Practice and Theory for all Workmen, Professional and Amateur’ (volume 2, number 85, Saturday 1^st November 1890, p. 538) we are told that ‘Mr. E. Bonney Steyne has left this country for a short sojourn in the States’. And finally, following the death of Gleeson White on 19^th October 1898, I can find no more published work by E. Bonney Steyne or E.B.S., the final piece by E.B.S. being, I believe, ‘Mr. Talwin Morris’s Designs for Cloth Bindings’ by E.B.S. in The Studio, volume 15, number 67, October 1898, pp. 38-44 (8 illustrations). What do I deduce from all this? In my opinion, Gleeson White and E. Bonney Steyne or E.B.S. is one and the same person; the character of the writing is identical – such as the seemingly old-fashioned and curious word ‘fain’ seen in the poems ‘The Last Secret’ and ‘Retrospection’ by E. Bonney Steyne and E.B.S. respectively is a word Gleeson White uses in his article on ‘American Piracy, Annexation of a British Myth’ (The Artist, volume VIII, number 85, 1^st January 1887, pp. 3-4) in reference to the meeting of Guinevere and Arthur, saying ‘The Queen would fain embrace him’ (p. 4) and examples in his works, such as ‘The Master Painters of Britain’ (four volumes, 1897-98) in the Introductory (volume I, 1897, p. IX). Gleeson White was also known to his friends as ‘Gleeful’, meaning merry, joyful and exuberant, which is a very good description of him (10) and the word ‘Bonney’ can mean fair, beautiful and is derived from the Latin, ‘bonus’, meaning good; Gleeson White was known for his delightful humour and wit, as can also be seen in his verse under his own name – is he making a charming riddle with the pseudonym? Does he feel free to express his more ‘uranian’ thoughts in verse under the persona and strange moniker of ‘E. Bonney Steyne’ and the initials E.B.S? I merely draw the reader’s attention to these facts.

Gleeson White was born Joseph William White in Christchurch, Hampshire on 8^th March 1851 (he later added the ‘Gleeson’ to his name), the only child of Joseph White (1893-1867), bookseller, stationer and printer, and Lydia Sarah Gleeson (1805-1875). His father, Joseph, who was born in Winkton, Hampshire and Lydia, born in Deptford, Kent, were married in Portsea Island, Hampshire in 1848; Joseph, who commenced his business in the art of bookbinding in 1819, seems to have been quite an energetic man, entirely self-taught – he ‘made his own boards by pasting sheets of old newspapers together, and afterwards turned out some respectable work. He bound the greater portion of the library of the late Lord Stuart de Rothesay, at Highcliffe Castle.’ He taught himself the art of printing and his business at Caxton House, 10, High Street, Christchurch, was the first and only booksellers in Christchurch. Upon his death on 17^th September 1867, aged 75, his widow, Lydia and son Joseph, continued the business. (11) Joseph’s wife, Lydia, (who was born 31^st October 1805) died several years later in Christchurch, on 26^th February 1875, aged 67. Joseph Gleeson White continued the business at Caxton House, as we can see from the 1881 census for Christchurch, Hampshire: Joseph is 30 years old and gives his occupation as – ‘Bookseller, stationer, organist’ [he was in fact organist at Mudeford Church of England Chapel, Christchurch, until he resigned in 1889 when he was presented by the choir and congregation with a silver tea service (Bournemouth Guardian. Saturday 10^th August 1889, p. 4,5)]; his wife, Annie M. White, born Annie Matilda Rose in Bath, Somerset, in 1852, is 28 years old [they were married in Bath, Somerset in 1876] and with them is their two children: 3 year old Cicely Rose Gleeson White who was born in Christchurch in 1877 who later became the well-known operatic soprano, Madame Gleeson White and married George John Miller (1877-1960) in Notting Hill, Middlesex on 22^nd July 1907, and 2 year old Eric Myles Foster Gleeson White (1879-1968) who married Beatrice Charlotte Smith (born 1868) in Notting Hill on 14^th October 1907. (12)

Joseph Gleeson White had many literary connections, he was friends with Oscar Wilde with whom he kept up a correspondence, beginning around 1888 and he supported Wilde during his trial which almost certainly ended Gleeson White’s editorship of The Studio in 1895, although he did continue to contribute articles to the magazine. Gleeson was also a friend of the poet and author, Richard Le Gallienne (1866-1947) who himself became enamoured of Wilde and having met Wilde on 6^th June1888, the following ‘Summer day’, 7^th June, began that sweet intimacy between the two poets. The biographer, Neil McKenna, in his ‘The Secret Life of Oscar Wilde’ (London. Century. 2003) says that ‘the same month he [Le Gallienne] met and had sex with Oscar, Le Gallienne was also to be found staying with the journalist and poet Gleeson White and his wife in Christchurch, Hampshire, a town which was later to house a small but important colony of uranian poets and writers.’ (p. 90)

Gleeson continued to be on familiar terms with many of the uranian writers of the ‘yellow nineties’ including the teacher-poet, John Gambril Nicholson (1866-1931) and Charles Philip Castle Kains Jackson (1857-1933), the editor of The Artist and Journal of Home Culture from 1888-1894; like Gleeson, Kains Jackson was pushed aside as editor, in his case, it was due to an article he wrote for the April 1894 edition of The Artist, titled ‘The New Chivalry’ which promoted the pleasures and principles of ‘Greek love’ in an already over-populated world. The article was signed ‘P.C.’ which is Kains Jackson’s middle names – Philip Castle, and the issue also included a poem by Lord Alfred Douglas: ‘Prince Charming’ on the same page (p. 102), and following the essay, a poem by Gambril Nicholson, entitled ‘On the River Bank’ (p. 105). (13) Following this final flourish of uranian defiance, the rather soulless May edition of The Artist was published and much of its beauty died with Kains Jackson’s dismissal. Gleeson White also became acquainted with the strange enigma that was ‘Baron Corvo’ – Frederick Rolfe (1860-1913); through Nicholson’s friendship with Rolfe, the ‘Baron’ met Gleeson in Christchurch around August 1889, staying at Caxton House. Joseph’s wife took an instant dislike to Rolfe, thinking him pretentious. ‘During most of the early months of Rolfe’s stay in Christchurch, Gleeson White was in New York, where he had gone as associate editor of Art Amateur Magazine, but Mrs. Gleeson White was at home with their two children and she made the Baron welcome.’ (14) The painter, Henry Scott Tuke also visited the Gleeson White’s regularly and Tuke was also in correspondence with Rolfe, who also painted. When Gleeson White wished to leave Christchurch for London, Rolfe suggested he buy Caxton House but his unreliability and lack of funds saw this come to nothing. At this time, September 1891, Kains Jackson stayed with the Gleeson White’s at Caxton House for about a month and he acted as Gleeson’s solicitor; tensions were fraught as Rolfe claimed Mrs. Gleeson White made sexual advances towards him. Despite this, Rolfe’s photographic work did feature in an edition of The Studio – The Nude in Photography: with some studies taken in the open air, by Gleeson White which showed works by Wilhelm von Gloeden (1856-1931) and Frederick Rolfe, including a reclining nude Cecil Castle (1870-1922), cousin and lover of Kains Jackson. (15)

It is worth pointing out that E. Bonney Steyne could possibly be a play on words – Gleeson White was an enthusiastic designer and creator of beautiful decorative furnishings and one such product used with various wood such as oak was ‘ebony stain’; I might also add that many pianofortes of the time were made of ebony wood and one often came across adverts in the newspapers of the period for ‘ebony stein’ or ‘ebony Steinway’.

Joseph Gleeson White died on 19^th October 1898 after contracting typhoid fever in Italy where he travelled to during the summer of that year.

The following poem is by Gleeson White and signed ‘G.W.’ in The Artist, volume 14, number 159, 1^st February 1893, p. 36:

 

RONDEAU, To R.C.

 
Yet hearts may meet tho’ years divide
Those who once happy side by side
Were well content; since every day
Found mutually in work or play
The same ideals by each descried.
Now leagues of tossing billows sway
And words infrequent poorly say,
Yet hearts may meet.
Some joys are lost, some hopes have died
But Love still leaps the ocean wide.
Across its space take then I pray
The thought “tho’ parted each must stay
And hands and eyes have vainly tried
Yet, hearts may meet.

 

If indeed E. Bonney Steyne, or ‘E.B.S.’ was Joseph Gleeson White, as I believe he was, either rightly or wrongly, it will probably matter very little to the majority of literary scholars and enthusiasts but to a tiny minority, those who appreciate the poetry of this minor genre, it may make a very small difference indeed.

 

Works by E.B.S. in The Studio:

 

Some Sketches by Claude Monet and Eugene Boudin, by E.B.S. The Studio, volume 1, number 6, September 1893, pp. 243-244 [6 illustrations].

The New Decorative Artist: Herbert Granville Fell, by E.B.S. The Studio, volume 2, number 2, February 1894, p. 164 [3 illustrations].

Studies by a New “Character” Draughtsman, J. T. Wright Manuel, by E.B.S. The Studio, volume 2, number 12, March 1894, pp. 218-219 [4 illustrations]

A Note on Mr. John Da Costa and his Work, by E.B.S. The Studio, volume 4, number 29, December 1894, pp. 84-87 [7 illustrations].

Afternoons in Studios: A Chat with Mr. Whistler (unnamed but probably E.B.S.), The Studio, volume 4, number 22, January 1895, pp. 116-121.

The Paintings and Etchings of Elizabeth Stanhope Forbes, by E.B.S. The Studio, volume 4, number 24, March 1895, pp. 186-192 [9 illustrations].

Some Aspects of the Work of Miss Mary L. Newill, by E.B.S. The Studio, volume 5, number 26, May 1895 (supplement, 15^th May 1895), pp. 56-63 [11 illustrations].

Afternoons in Studios: Henry Scott Tuke at Falmouth, by E.B.S. The Studio, volume 5, number 27, June 1895, pp. 90-95 [7 illustrations].

New Book Illustrator: Charles Robinson, by E.B.S. The Studio, volume 5, number 18, July 1895, pp. 146-150 [4 illustrations].

A Painter in the Arctic Regions. An Interview with Mr. Frank Wilbert Stokes, by E.B.S. The Studio, volume 5, number 30, September 1895, pp. 209-214 [5 illustrations].

A Chat with Mr. and Mrs. Nelson Dawson on Enamelling, by E.B.S. The Studio, volume 6, number 31, October 1895, pp. 173-178 [10 illustrations].

Mr. Mortimer Menpes and his Mexican Memories, by E.B.S. The Studio, volume 6, number 33, December 1895, pp. 161-164 [4 illustrations].

Afternoons in Studios: A Chat with Mr. George Frampton, A.R.A., by E.B.S. The Studio, volume 6, number 34, January 1896, pp. 205-213 [9 illustrations].

Oscar Roty and the Art of the Medalist, by E.B.S. The Studio, volume 7, number 37, April 1896, pp. 158-162 [8 illustrations].

Some Recent Designs by Mr. C.F.A. Voysey, by E.B.S. The Studio, volume 7, number 38, May 1896, pp. 209-218 [14 illustrations].*

Studio-Talk, by E.B.S. The Studio, volume 12, number 56, November 1897, pp. 118-123.

Some Drawings by Mr. Nico Jungman, by E.B.S. The Studio, volume 13, number 59, February 1898, pp. 25-30 [8 illustrations]

Eleanor F. Brickdale, Designer and Illustrator, by E.B.S. The Studio, volume 13, number 60, March 1898, pp. 103-108 [5 illustrations].

P. J. Billinghurst, Designer and Illustrator, by E.B.S. The Studio, volume 14, number 65, August 1898, pp. 181-186 [7 illustrations]

Mr. Talwin Morris’s Designs for Cloth Bindings, by E.B.S. The Studio, volume 15, number 67, October 1898, pp. 38-44 [8 illustrations]

 

*E.B.S. also had an article on Voysey: ‘Country Cottages’, published in Country Life Illustrated, volume 3, number 59, 19^th February 1898, pp. 195-197.

 

 

Works by E. Bonney Steyne in Work: An Illustrated Magazine of Practice and Theory for all Workmen, Professional and Amateur:

 

Volume I:

Number 6, Saturday 27^th April 1889: ‘Binding made Easy, by E, Bonney Steyne’, pp. 81-83.

Number 9, Saturday 18^th May 1889: ‘Binding made Easy, by E. Bonney Steyne’, continued from 27^th April edition, pp. 138-139.

Number 20, Saturday 3^rd August 1889: ‘Japanese Motive for Panel in Fretwork, by E. Bonney Steyne’, p. 308.

Number 21, Saturday 10^th August 1889: ‘A Tray for Loose Letters, with Ink Bottle, by E. Bonney Steyne’, pp. 327-329.

Number 30, Saturday 12^th October 1889: ‘A Mauresque Coffee Table, by E. Bonney Steyne’, pp. 471-473.

Number 34, Saturday 9^th November 1889: ‘Design for a Large Bracket in Fretwork, by E. Bonney Steyne’, pp. 535-536.

 

Volume II:

Number 73, Saturday 9^th August 1890: ‘Clocks and Clock Cases, by E. Bonney Steyne’, pp. 329-330, also in the same edition: ‘Two Finger-Plates for Fret-Cutting, by E. Bonney Steyne’, pp. 337-338.

Number 74, Saturday 16^th August 1890: ‘A Hall Settle: After an old Bedstead of the Sheraton Period, by E. Bonney Steyne’, pp. 345-346.

Number 76, Saturday 30^th August 1890: ‘An Overmantel in the Arabian Style, by E. Bonney Steyne’, pp. 377-378.

Number 79, Saturday 20^th September 1890: ‘Design for a Bracket in Fret-Work, by E. Bonney Steyne’, pp. 432-434.

Number 82, Saturday 11^th October 1890: ‘A Corner Cupboard with Carved Panels, or for Gesso Ornamentation, by E. Bonney Steyne’, pp. 483-484.

Number 100, Saturday 14^th February 1891: ‘A Small Hanging Cupboard with Fretwork Doors and Enrichments, by E. Bonney Steyne’, pp. 769-770.

 

I can find no articles by E. Bonney Steyne in volumes III and IV. I may note that Gleeson White’s ‘A Hanging Music Canterbury in Fretwork’ appeared in the number 105 issue of volume III (Saturday 21^st March 1891, pp. 3-4) and the final articles by E. Bonney Steyne, to my knowledge and research, was in volume V of Work, re-subtitled ‘the Illustrated Journal for Mechanics’, number 203, Saturday 4^th February 1893: ‘A Remodelled Drawing-Room’ (part I), by E. Bonney Steyne, p. 40; part II of the same article appeared in number 207, Saturday 4^th March 1893, p. 104. There is also an interesting article by E. Bonney Steyne on ‘Painter-Etchers Old and New’ in Art Review, volume I, 1890, Notes and Reviews, pp. 126-127.

 

 

NOTES:

 

1. E.B.S. reviewed Oscar Wilde’s play, ‘Lady Windermere’s Fan’ which opened at the St. James’s Theatre, London on 20^th February [1892] in which he says ‘Mr. Oscar Wilde is like a dear little boy, clean and well-dressed, brought into dessert under promise to be good; who immediately improves the occasion by uttering terrible speeches, and behaving quite as badly as his mother’s rivals could wish.’ He damns the play as too dramatic and ‘flippant’ – ‘vice is hinted at, but when you get behind the mystery, no nonconformist  conscience could be more guiltless than these mock libertines and sham sinners’; he ends the review by saying: ‘We prefer to think that the spoilt child has real wit and genuine talent and can be as lovable and fresh when he cares to be so, as he can be just a merely provoking young monkey, when our expectant audience are prepared for a nicely behaved infant. E.B.S.’ [The Artist, volume 13, number 148, 1^st March 1892, p. 76]
2. Afternoons in Studios: Henry Scott Tuke at Falmouth. The Studio, volume 5, number 27, June 1895, pp. 90-95. [7 illustrations]
3. see: ‘Some Aspects of the Work of Miss Mary L. Newill’. [Supplement to The Studio, 15^th May 1895] The Studio, volume 5, number 26, May 1895, pp. 56-63 [11 illustrations]; and ‘The Paintings and Etchings of Elizabeth Stanhope Forbes’. The Studio, volume 4, number 24, March 1895, pp. 186-192 [9 illustrations].
4. The Decoration of the Printed Book, by E.B.S. Magazine of Art, volume 20, March 1897, pp. 275-278.
5. The Chameleon, volume 1, number 1, December 1894. The magazine began with Wilde’s ‘Phrases and Philosophies for the use of the Young’, pp. 1-3, and included Gambril Nicholson’s ‘The Shadow of the End’, pp. 4-7; Alfred Douglas’s sonnet poem ‘In Praise of Shame’, p. 25 and his ‘Two Loves’, pp. 26-28; the anonymous (although written by Bloxam in June 1884) short story, ‘The Priest and the Acolyte’, pp. 29-47; an anonymous and delightful little poem, ‘Love in Oxford’ (which seems very reminiscent of poems by ‘Alan Stanley’, the poet, Stanley Addleshaw, in his ‘Love Lyrics’ which was published the same year), p. 48, and the magazine ends with the charming short poem, ‘At Dawn’, by Bertram Lawrence, p. 59.
6. ‘A Remodelled Drawing-Room’, part I, in volume 5, number 203, 4^th February 1893, p. 40, and part II, volume 5, number 207, 4^th March 1893, p. 104. see also, ‘Cabinet Making and Upholstery’, ‘Cabinet in Fret-Cutting’ J. W. Gleeson-White, ‘Work’, March 23 1889 and ‘Drawing-Room Overmantel with Lincrusta Decoration’ E. Bonney Steyne, ‘Work’, April 20-65, 1889; ‘An Occasional Chair with Fret-Work Decorations’ by J. W. Gleeson White, ‘Amateur Work, Illustrated’, volume 7, 1887, p. 486, and ‘A Bachelor’s Sideboard in the Neo-Japanese Style’ by J. W. Gleeson White, ‘Amatuer Work, Illustrated’, volume 1,  London. Ward, Lock, & Co. 1881, pp. 376-377.
7. Eveline Margaret Grose Byam Shaw, also known as Evelyn C. E. Shaw, was married to the artist John James Byam Shaw
8. Crafting the Woman Professional in the Long Nineteenth Century: Artistry and Industry in Britain, edited by Kyriaki Hadjiafxendi and Patricia Zakrest. London, Routlegde. 2013 [2016 ed.], p. 183.
9. Edward Barton Shuldham M.D., M.R.C.S., born in India in 1837 and educated at Trinity College, Dublin; he was a friend of the author Lewis Carroll and a member of the British Homeopathic Society and published several books on the subject: Headaches, their Causes and Treatments (1875), Stammering and its Treatment (1879), The Family Homeopathist (1883) etc. he also wrote and lectured on art and was a painter, sculptor and poet. He collected porcelain and Japanese woodblock prints and famously sold his ‘Blue and White Chinese Porcelain Collection’ (more than 160 pieces, including seven Hawthorn jars) at Christies in February 1880 which was mentioned in The Artist [volume I, number 3, 15^th March 1880, p. 73]; he was a critic for The Dark Blue Magazine and wrote short stories such as ‘The House by the Moor’ in Chambers journal of Popular Literature, Science and Arts [seventh series, volume III, number 123, 5^th April 1913, part I, pp. 273-277, part II continued in number 124, 12^th April, pp. 297-299] and articles: ‘Sacred Art in the Royal Academy’ [Churchman’s Family Magazine, volume 6, July 1865], ‘Heine as an Impressionist’ [Temple Bar Magazine, volume 29, 1870, pp. 210-227], ‘Old Nankin Blue’ [The Art Journal, part I, October 1877, part II, November 1877]. He married Elizabeth Young (born 1846) in 1864 and he and his wife, raised the Detmold children, Mary, Nora, Charles and Edward, at their Hampstead home. Charles and Edward showed great promise as illustrators and their first book, ‘Pictures from Birdland’ was published in 1899 when they were just 15 years old; their Uncle, Dr. Shuldham, provided the verse to each illustration as ‘E.B.S.’ [in the 1901 census for Hampstead, 17 year old Maurice C. and Edward J. Detmold, both give their occupations as ‘artist’]
10. ‘Gleeson White and Kains Jackson at Auction’, Front Free Endpapers, 18^th July 2017, https://endpaper60.rssing.com
11. The Bookseller. Monday 30^th September 1867, p. 12.
12. 1881 census for England and Wales. RG11, piece/folio:1192/85, p. 26, line: 5.
13. The Artist and Journal of Home Culture, volume XV, number 172, 2^nd April 1894, The New Chivalry, pp. 102-104.
14. Frederick Rolfe, Baron Corvo: A Biography. Miriam J. Benkovitz. London, Hamilton. 1977. p. 50.
15. The Nude in Photography: with some studies taken in the open air, by Gleeson White, The Studio, volume 1, number 3, June 1893, pp. 104-108 [8 photographic works ]. The article was also reproduced for The Photogram magazine in three parts: part I, volume 1, number 3, March 1894, pp. 55-56, part II: volume 1, number 4, April 1894, pp. 85-86, part III: volume 1, number 5, May 1894, pp. 103-105.