Although most of the media, when it thinks of birthdays today, will be interested in a certain young prince of this realm, we should not overlook the birthday of another; today marks the 154th birthday of Frederick Rolfe Baron Corvo. To mark the occasion I offer you a few images from an amazing book. These are pages from a copy of In His Own Image by Rolfe that belonged to the poet and schoolmaster John Gambril Nicholson. This copy is extra-illustrated with nine photographs of young men by Rolfe. The book is a series of stories based loosely on Italian folk tales and framed by a group of lusty Italian boys who tell the stories to the narrator and whose own picturesque adventures are also recounted. A number of the photographs pasted into this copy are captioned by hand giving details of which of the boys in the book they are intended to be: they are clearly intended as illustrations. Other material from Rolfe including a drawing and a handwritten note also grace the pages of this unique book. It was once the possession of Dr Rocco Verrill but was sold last month at Bonhams in London along with an astonishing collection of holograph letters and other material by Rolfe forming a large part of the sale on 18th June just gone.
