Miss Brookes’ Chinese Parasol

The Beautiful Miss Brooke (1879) is a novel by Louis Zangwill, the lesser known younger brother of London novelist and playwright Israel Zangwill. It’s a rather turgid tale a young woman, art, self-discovery etc that’s plenty dated.
More interestingly the book was illustrated by WH Margetson and Herbert Horwitz and includes this illustration of Miss Bourke at home with a rather odd but interesting large Chinese parasol hanging from the ceiling of her London rooms above her without a handle. It doesn’t quite work as a light shade so i assume it is there to illustrate Miss Brookes’ style and sophistication.