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Correspondence of the Sowerby family, chiefly letters to James Sowerby. Correspondents include: George Arnott Walker Arnott; Nathaniel Bagshaw Ward; Etheldred Bennett; William Bingley; James Clealand; Richard Cotton; Francis Crow; James Dalton; George Don; Richard Duppa; William Henry Fitton; Leonard Horne; John Harris; Adrian Hardy Haworth; Henry Heuland; George Hibbert; John Coakley Lettsom; John Lewis; Gideon Mantell; Thomas John Newbold; George Henry Noehden; Charles Panse; Thomas Joseph Pettigrew; Joseph Ellison Portlock; Thomas Purton; Philip Rashleigh; Joseph Sabine; Henry Sheppard; William Travis; Patrick Walker; Henry Warburton; William Wedderburn and Thomas Stamford Raffles.

Correspondence to and from James Sowerby and other family members from naturalists and collectors in Britain and abroad.

A calligraphic sample book, presumably compiled to demonstrate the skills of the unknown artist. Containing samples of writing and drawing styles, including some fine natural history drawings of freshwater animals.

f.1: fanciful decorative border including vignettes of indians with feather headresses, birds, snails, rams' heads, sphinxes, architectural columns, candles and paintings.

f.2: illustrations of four types of freshwater fishes: barbel (top); pike (bottom); bream (left) and gudgeon (right). With outer and inner borders of very small and patterned calligraphy.

f.3: specimen of calligraphy: Proverbs 16: 7-9 commencing "Wenn dem Herrn..." and ending "...aber der Herr allein gibt dass es fortgehe". Highly decorated 'W', using flowers, leaves and fruits.

f.4: seven lines of text with letters staggered at the line centre. Accompanied by a freely drawn bird [a swan on water?] and an illustration of a crayfish or lobster.

f.5r: three columns of written text, various styles and forms of address, commencing "Dantiscanae urbis origo"

f.5v: three coluns of written text, various styles and forms of address, commencing "Qua' tibi depictum..."

The presentation is noted in a meeting of the Royal Society of 26 February 1700/1: "Mr Owen was permitted to be present. He presented a fine piece of writing in a book done on Vellum at Dantzick [Gdansk, Poland]. He was thanked for it". [JBO/10 p.212].