New Zealand, ca. 1925. In two volumes. Folio (35 x 25 cm, and 36 x 33 cm). The first of white paper, with his name handwritten on the second leaf, and (68 groups of) illustrations, mostly on leaf rectos only, a few using both sides of a leaf. The second, largest, of brown paper, with his name written on the front cover. Inserted: one sheet of trace paper with pencil drawing, and 24 leaves with colour pencil sketches of New Zealand landscapes, and people.

Trevor Lloyd (1863-1937) was a New Zealand artist, illustrator and cartoonist. "...Lloyd was born in Silverdale, Auckland ... [his] work is evocative of the New Zealand bush and his work often contained Maori motifs. Lloyd exhibited with the Auckland Society of Arts in 1883, 1896, 1898, 1899 and 1907 and in 1927 at the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts. Some examples of his work are available online. Lloyd was employed as an illustrator for New Zealand Illustrated Magazine from November 1901 until its last edition in 1905 (in which he was acknowledged). He also worked as an illustrator for Auckland Weekly News and as a cartoonist for The New Zealand Herald, retiring in 1936 after 34 years" (Wikipedia). The first sketchbook mainly shows a) scenes and people, observed and drawn by Lloyd during a boat trip, perhaps on a ferry; and b) spectacular solitary trees and ferns, in rectangular frames. The latter seems to be one of his favourite subjects: several New Zealand museums and art galleries possess tree etchings in his hand, and at least one of the drawings in this manuscript can be identified as the basis of one of his etchings. The former are not without humour: a harbour scene has, in the margin, the sketch of a surprised looking young girl, captioned "He's drawing in ink". Trevor Lloyd was, after all, also one the country's leading cartoonists. Of his India ink sketches those of landscapes are quite detailed; those of people more sketched -some in pencil. Among the pencilled illustrations is one of a cat sleeping in a man's arm, captioned "the prisoner", which left us to wonder who the prisoner was: the cat, or the man? The second sketchbook contains fine, balanced, crayon illustrations of New Zealand landscapes, and people, many captioned with the name of the location (e.g. Whale Island, in the Bay of Plenty, or Umu-Pura Pura, or a short description of the situation (e.g. ""One of our backbones"", "A warm day"). On some drawings a white tent is visible, suggesting that Lloyd went on a trip through part of New Zealand's Northern Island. Both sketch books show signs of travel and working in the open air. Thus edges frayed, a few smudges and small holes in some leaves, but generally in good condition. In all, a rich cross-section of Lloyd as an observer and artist. See also: John F. Perry. 'Lloyd, Trevor', from the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography.