RARE: Original Plans for an Addition to Skerryvore Together With Original Plans for Improvements to Middle Road Showing Robert Louis Stevenson as owner of Skerryvore and showing the Owners and Tenants of Neighboring Properties [Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde] by Stevenson, Robert Louis; Sumner, Heywood

Bournemouth. Very good +. RARE: ORIGINAL PLANS FOR AN ADDITION TO SKERRYVORE, Robert Louis Stevenson's home in Bournemouth where John Singer Sargent painted Stevenson and his wife and where Stevenson had the famous dream which inspired his great work "Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde", which tale, among other great works, he wrote at Skerryvore. The Plans were prepared in 1900 for Heywood Sumner, Esq., a successor in ownership, for the addition of a Studio to the house. [Heywood Sumner -- George Heywood Maunoir Sumner -- was the well-known English painter, illustrator and art-craftsman who was closely involved with the Arts and Crafts movement and the late-Victorian London art world. Sumner, who was qualified as a Barrister, also employed much of his time as an amateur archaeologist, geologist, naturalist, and folklorist.] Skerryvore, whose lawns ran down from the house to Alum Chine Road, is where Stevenson lived from 1885 until his departure for Samoa (where he died in 1894). Thus, the Plans were prepared soon after his departure and show the house as it existed when Stevenson owned it, together with the proposed Studio addition. A "wedding present" from Stevenson's father to Stevenson and his wife, Fanny, approximately four years after their marriage -- most likely the father's attempt to keep his peripatetic son near to him in his last years -- Stevenson came to legal ownership of it upon his father's death in 1887. Named after "Skerryvore", the tallest lighthouse in Scotland and one designed by his uncle, Alan Stevenson, who, like Stevenson's father, was a leading lighthouse engineer, the house was destroyed by German bombs on November 16, 1940. There now stands in its place a memorial garden containing a statue of the lighthouse for which the home was named. [One frame measures approximately 28 3/4 inches x approximately 20 inches and the other frame measures approximately 15 1/8 inches x 29 7/8 inches.] With some tears and minor loss, these ORIGINAL PLANS are in quite nice condition overall, are UNIQUE TO THE MARKET, and likely comprise the only plans for this important house available, or hereafter likely to be available, for purchase. TOGETHER WITH: Original Plans (comprised of two sheets) for Improvements to Middle Road Showing Robert Louis Stevenson as owner of Skerryvore and showing the Owners and Tenants of Neighboring Properties. The first page of the Plans for the Middle Road Improvements are dated January 6, 1885. With some tears, minor loss, and fold lines these ORIGINAL PLANS are in quite nice condition overall, and are unique to the market. Each page has been archivally mounted to, and removable from, a white archival non-wooden board.) [The front, and smaller sheet, measures approximately 27 inches x approximately 35 inches, and the second, and larger, sheet measures approximately 40 1/2 inches x 26 3/4 inches.] Notably, they show the names of the owners of the properties along Middle Road as well as the residents of such properties who were neighbors to Stevenson's Skerryvore property, and show Skerryvore as the property of "R. L. Stevenson". Presumably, many, if not all, of the residents along Middle Road named on the Plans certainly would have been in residence there when Stevenson and his bride took possession of Skerryvore in April, 1885. Each of the four sheets show some relevant stamps and relevant pencil notes. Altogether these Plans constitute an important record of Stevenson's home, a LITERARY LANDMARK and a rare opportunity for the Collector. A WONDERFUL GROUP OF RARE ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON ITEMS. RARE INDEED. [PLEASE NOTE: Buyer's shipping cost for this group will exceed the shipping cost quoted by this site as the items, with protective packaging, together weigh approximately 55 pounds.]. Seller Inventory # 981