Sausmarez (Ronald Philip Stanley de, 1880/1-1973, Commander RN). Album of watercolour jeux d'esprit, 1947-54. Oblong folio (262 x 300 mm), contemporary 'Reedsdale' post-bound half morocco album, containing 39 postal covers expertly illustrated in pen-and-ink and watercolour with various scenes and caricatures including 4 of dancing fairies, 2 from the Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (the Mad Hatter's Tea Party and Alice's meeting with the King and Queen of Hearts), Father Christmas driving a sleigh, the Chelsea Flower Show, seals on an ice floe, an 18th-century rendezvous between a shepherd and his lover, Humpty Dumpty, a parade of anthropomorphic cats in the style of Louis Wain, a group of shipwrecked mariners on a raft with a sea-monster in the foreground, and various other scenes and caprices, all skilfully incorporating the address of the recipient (N. F. Pasbach, later Mrs R. de Sausmarez), together with 9 watercolours of exotic bird and plant species with accompanying manuscript light verse (e.g. nutmeg, sunbirds, the coffee-plant, each 190 x 150 mm or reverse), 9 smaller watercolours comprising a partial alphabet of exotic species (e.g. 'T is for Tamarind'; 'Y is for Yucca'; 'Z is for the Zapote', each 91 x 61 mm), and a few similar items, all mounted rectos and versos to black card album leaves (qty: 1) 'Ronald de Sausmarez was born in 1880 or 1881. He married Nora Frances Pasbach in 1947. He joined the Royal Navy and served as a Midshipman in HMS Royal Arthur, from 1897. He was promoted acting Sub-Lieutenant in HMS Blake, from 1901. He served as a Lieutenant in HMS Formidable, 1903-4, and HMS Psyche, from 1904. In 1908, he was placed on the retired list. He joined HM Naval Base, Holyhead, to plan offensive measures against submarines, March 1918. He was promoted to the acting rank of Commander and appointed Senior Naval Officer of the base, August 1918-19. He died at his home in East Molesey, Surrey, on 30 September 1973' (The Times Digital Archive 1785-1985, cited after Churchill Archives Centre, University of Cambridge, GBR/0014/RDSA, online, accessed 26/06/2021).