BC109
Untitled
[Memo pad]
Orange covered sketchbook branded Dataday Memo Pad, Tablet refill No 2, 36 lined leaves, containing drawings of:
Cover: labelled "Dataday Memo Pad, Tablet refill No 2, A product of TJ & J Smith Ltd"
Page 1: ship, pencil and ink, numbered UR 1, pencil
Page 2: two ships, pencil and ink, numbered UR 2, pencil
Page 2 overleaf: signed “HF Scales Auckland”, pencil
Page 3: two ships, pencil, numbered UR 3, pencil
Page 3 overleaf: signed “F Scales YWCA Auckland”, pencil
Page 4: two ships, pencil, numbered UR 4, pencil
Page 4 overleaf: signed “F Scales. YWCA Auckland”, pencil
Page 5: seated figures, pencil, text, UL, "may at sea", pencil, numbered UR 5, pencil
Page 5 overleaf: signed “H F. Scales. YWCA Auckland”, pencil
Page 6: figure, possibly dancing, pencil, numbered UR 6, pencil
Page 6 overleaf: signed “H. F Scales YWCA Queen Street Auckland”, pencil
Page 7-34: blank
Page 35: text, “Roll cotton wool [illegible]”, numbered LR 7, pencil
Page 36: text, “Easter cards, Stockings, brassiere, hair clips, Turps”, pencil, numbered UL 8, pencil
Page 36 overleaf: text, "77", pencil
Inside back cover: signed "H SCALES 172 -172", ink, "YWCA", pencil
Back cover: signed "F Scales 172", ink
Front cover ink F Scales 172 (F reversed)
Page 1 LL ink H. SCALES 77 COLOMBO.
Page 2 LL ink H. SCALES. 77 COLOMBO.
Page 2 LR pencil 1 MAY
Page 2 overleaf LL pencil HF Scales Auckland (F reversed)
Page 3 UL pencil COLOMBO
Page 3 LL pencil H. SCALES 77 1 MAY
Page 3 overleaf LL pencil F Scales YWCA Auckland
Page 4 UL pencil COLOMBO
Page 4 LL pencil H. SCALES. 77
Page 4 overleaf LL pencil F Scales. YWCA Auckland
Page 5 LR pencil SCALES.
Page 5 overleaf LL pencil H F. Scales. YWCA Auckland
Page 6 LL pencil H SCALES 77
Page 6 overleaf UL pencil H. F Scales YWCA Queen Street Auckland
Inside back cover Centre ink H Scales 172 – 172
Inside back cover Centre pencil YWCA
Back cover UL pencil (not in artist's hand) E-584 DP-99-037
Back cover UL ink F Scales 172 (F reversed)
Donated to the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, by Patience Tennent, March 2001
A staple, covered by tape, upper centre holds the sketchbook together.
Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand
Wellington, New Zealand
This sketchbook was loaned to B. de Lange, 1992, and subsequently returned to then owner, Patience Tennent, the artist's niece.
Includes drawings done while Flora Scales was a passenger on-board the SS Shota Rostaveli on her trip back to New Zealand from France in 1977.
Front and back cover inscriptions include number 172, which was the number of Scales cabin on the SS Shota Rustaveli.
Other pages show variations on her signature, H Scales, H F Scales and both H F Scales and F Scales with the 'F' reversed. This reversed form of the 'F' is often seen in her early work up to the 1920s [Untitled [Man on Rocky Foreshore] [BC007], Overlooking the Bay [BC006], Eastern Extension Cable Company's Ship "Patrol" in Wellington Harbour [BC122]].
Pages 1-4, all titled Colombo, are dated 1977, two are dated 1 May 1977. Colombo is the port and capital of Sri Lanka (Ceylon).
“YWCA, Auckland”, written on overleaf pages 3-6, is possibly where she was intending to stay on landing in New Zealand.
Used pages numbered 1-8 in pencil, presumably by Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand staff, after its donation in 1979.
When the SS Shota Rustaveli docked in Piraeus, Greece, Scales's niece, Diana Zaharopoulos (nee Westacott, later Mills), collected her and took her home to her flat in Athens for the night. Correspondence Diana Mills to B. de Lange, 02.11.1983, “Although Aunt Lass [Flora] seemed a little older, she still seemed the old Aunt Lass, upright and full of courage.”
This was to be the last journey Scales made between Europe and New Zealand.