Descrizione

TRAVELLER’S BRIEFCASE – Elegant dark red morocco ‘wallet’ briefcase (internally lined in green), nicely gilt on borders, with the interior divided in two flat pockets, the lower part being a small drawer, covered with marbled paper, with compartments to hold pencils, pens, ink bottle, and other writing or drawing tools. Both the folding upper part of the briefcase and the opening lid of the drawer could be locked at the same time with a key, now lost. (North Italy or France, first quarter of the 19th century).
Content:
– A ‘wallet’ sketchbook, bound in red morocco, finely gilt with roll-borders at edges, name and date of the owner tooled in gold: “Longayrou, Ier . Janvier . 1812, No. 5” (likely the n. 5 of a series of sketchbooks made along the travel). There are inside several sketches, mainly in watercolour, depicting landscapes, and even a waiter serving a drink (France, first quarter of the 19th century);
– A wallet made with vellum recovered from manuscript documents.
– A folder for letters, covered with brown marbled paper, and internally with beautiful colored floral paper, containing some sheets in light blue paper, that could be used to write letters.
– A three-draw, marbled paper card-bodied telescope with metal fittings, dimens. 28 cm., long shut when closed, still with its lenses.
– A small wooden tube for carrying messages and letters.
– A small brown calf box, once containing playing cards or a small booklet.

The common purpose of each type of traveller was, and certainly still is to witness their own experience, entrusting to their travel diary their own observations and fascinations. In addition, a previous good training could also provide them with a certain pictorial ability, to let them be able to portray glimpses and views, life scenes and characters encountered during the journey or in moments of pause.
So, next to the “necessaire de voyage” and the “writing boxes”, an essential object for the traveller is the briefcase, containing sheets and notebooks, ink and colors to be able to annotate and draw at any time anything that strikes the imagination. In the folder, from which you almost never separate, there are other indispensable tools such as a telescope, or the most personal items and important documents such as laissez-passer and letters of presentation, perhaps kept in special wallets and discreet boxes.