Sketchbook owner's name?

[Karen McDonald]

I can see virtually no similarities in the two examples of writing, and would say they are definitely written by different people.

I agree!
I've amended my comment above.
That's what happens when you hurry and don't check things..! 
As I have written above, the "Sep" is the only bit which is in both text samples - and is completely different.

I'll try to be more careful in future. 

Karen

[loobylooayr]

Just a thought but...

My Reply #33, the person who bought it may have added the price paid at the time of purchase?
This may have been many yrs later?
The colour of the ink is different 

Annie

The colour/shading of the paper is different at that part of the paper too - looks like light reflection? This could make the ink shade differ. Another thought- perhaps the ink was running low on the nib 
To be honest , although I see where you have spotted a potential £ sign , I'm not convinced . To me it looks like 28 Sep - 58
  I think the light line through the - is either a small flaw on the paper or maybe an accidental scratch of the pen   
According to a UK inflation calculator online, £58 would be in the equivalant of £7000 circa 1850/60.
Granted the "price" could have been added later - but why would you add it directly next to the date (with no year).

Looby

[Karen McDonald]

To be honest , although I see where you have spotted a potential £ sign , I'm not convinced . To me it looks like 28 Sep - 58

I agree. 
However, I do think the "58" is from (yet) another hand. If the first number is indeed "28", then the "8" is written very differently.
If the "28" is not that but "25", then again, the "5" is very different.

Whatever - I think the "58" has definitely been added by someone else.

I keep going back to the original photo (with the signature or whatever it is) and it's driving me mad.  Woods & trees, 'n all that. It would be wonderful if we could get to the bottom of this one. 

Karen

[beatrice834]

Again, thanks to you all for the thoughtful responses, and thanks especially to bbart for the relevant Indus timetable.   The watercolour of Gibraltar from the boat is firmly part of the sketchbook. I think the watercolour title is by another hand and that it is dated 28 September 1858.   Would a naval man have the leisure time to sketch and paint on board Indus?  Was the book was given by a family member to Mr X the naval man, and the donor carefully wrote X's name on the first page  but X then did only one watercolour which he dated?

I am heartened that so many other researchers share my fascination with the puzzles of genealogy!

[Ruskie]

I expect that a naval man would have had some leisure time.

What I think unusual is that the sketch book is blank apart from one watercolour. I think paper was a valuable commodity in those days. People used to write on top of other writing to save paper. This makes me wonder if this was a wealthy family. I am sure that many naval people could write, but some could not, so if a naval person owned this, he was probably an officer of some sort. The name in your first post is written in a very confident hand.

Your theory is plausible though I am not sure that an adult would write the name of another adult into a sketch book before gifting it to him. You never know though.