Damn, this is some dark scrapbooking.
The following is a very curious and mysterious object, which was included in Evelyn Waugh's collection at the Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas at Austin.
(The book was not created by Waugh. Its creator cannot be confirmed, but an inscription tells us the book was given as a gift in 1854.)
Courtesy Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas at Austin / Via hrc.contentdm.oclc.org
It has come to be referred to as the "Victorian blood book."
The images of blood are a reference to Christian sacrifice.
Courtesy Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas at Austin
That red hue, however, is not blood; it is red India ink.
From the description: "Its decoupage was assembled from several hundred engravings, many taken from books of etchings by William Blake, as well as other illustrations from early nineteenth-century books."
Courtesy Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas at Austin
This is only a selection of a few pages from the book, however the imagery is similar throughout — a mix of religious iconography, nature, and "extensive religious commentary."
Courtesy Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas at Austin
