Our ladie singes magnificat, with tunes surpassinge sweete before 1865

Editor: So, this is an image from an anonymous sketchbook page, titled "Our ladie singes magnificat, with tunes surpassinge sweete," made before 1865. What strikes me is the use of aged paper and the feeling of intimacy it conveys, like a private moment captured. What can you tell me about it? Curator: Well, immediately I'm drawn to the paper itself, "homemade paper" even! Think about the labor involved. Someone pulped fiber, laid it out, pressed it. Before mass production, paper was precious, especially good quality paper like this seems to be. The presence of text, perhaps lyrics on the right, adjacent to the image of the Madonna on the left – highlights how inextricably intertwined the graphic arts are with textual practices. Editor: So, is the physical production of the book as important as the images themselves? Curator: Absolutely. In a materialist view, we need to consider the socio-economic context. The book points towards a culture of private devotion, perhaps within a wealthy family, commissioning or producing personalized religious material, thus intertwining social status with acts of piety. The aged paper tells us it's endured and served a purpose for someone across decades. Was this for personal devotion, an amateur artist's study? What can it tell us of craft and skill outside established channels of art production? Editor: That's fascinating, thinking about it not just as a picture but as a handmade object with a social history. So, the very 'stuff' of the artwork expands how we should interpret its artistic significance. Curator: Precisely! And it encourages us to value not just the end result but the entire process of its creation and the hands that shaped it. Editor: I hadn't considered the material aspects so deeply before; I’ll be sure to think about paper differently from now on! Thanks!