Burlington Fine Arts Club
Catalogue of pictures and other abjects of art selected from the collections of Mr. Robert Holford
N
5247
H72B87
1921
c.l
ROBARTS
With Sir George Holford's Compliments
Biirlinston Fine Arts Club
CATALOGUE OF PICTURES
AND OTHER OBJECTS OF ART
SELECTED FROM THE COLLECTIONS OF
MR. ROBERT HOLFORD
[1808-1892]
MAINLY FROM WESTONBIRT IN GLOUCESTERSHIRE
LONDON
PRIVATELY PRINTED FOR THE BURLINGTON FINE ARTS CLUB WINTER EXHIBITION 1921-1922
•Jx.
With Sir George Holford's Compliments
Burlington Fine Arts Club
CATALOGUE OF PICTURES
AND OTHER OBJECTS OF ART
SELECTED FROM THE COLLECTIONS OF
MR ROBERT HOLFORD
[1808-1892]
MAINLY FROM WESTONBIRT IN GLOUCESTERSHIRE
LONDON
PRIVATELY PRINTED FOR THE BURLINGTON FINE ARTS CLUB WINTER EXHIBITION 1921-1922
PRINTED IN ENGLAND
AT THE OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
BY FREDERICK HALL
COMMITTEE FOR THIS EXHIBITION
THE LORD CARMICHAEL, G.C.S.I., G.C.M.G., K.C.M.G., Chairman
ROBERT H. BENSON, ESQ. DR. TANCRED BORENIUS
THE EARL OF CRAWFORD AND BALCARRES, K.T., P.O. CAMPBELL DODGSON, ESQ., C.B.E.
HENRY HARRIS, ESQ.
THE EARL OF ILCHESTER
SIR ROBERT C. WITT, C.B.E.
PREFACE
[HE Exhibition that fills the Gallery for this Winter, 1921-2, consists of pictures, drawings, maiolica, painted MSS., early printed books with woodcuts and copper engravings, porce- lain, ar moires a deux corps, cassoni and objets de veriu, lent by the courtesy of Lt.-Col. Sir George Holford. They are chosen out of the collections of his father, Mr. Holford, an original member of the Burlington Club, which, in the words of its first provisional title in 1856, was 'a collector's club'.
The original members included inheritors of treasures at Hamilton Palace, Bowood, Deepdene, Panshanger and other houses full of splendid English portraits hanging harmoniously with heirlooms from great collectors in the seventeenth century, when it was part of a liberal education to set forth from England on the grand tour and return with spoil from Italy and France. Others, again, gifted with equally fine taste, such as Sir Robert Peel, the English Rothschilds, Mr. Thomas Baring, Mr. Gambier Parry, Mr. Ruskin and Mr. Holford, were forming collections for themselves, taking advantage of the opportunities afforded during the first half of the nineteenth century by the Napoleonic Wars and the Revolutionary vicissitudes of 1848. All agreed in wanting a common meeting-place to compare their treasures.
This difficulty was solved by the formation of the Club. Permission was obtained, through Sir Henry Cole, then Secretary of the Science and Art Department, from Lord Granville, Lord President of the Council, with the approval of Mr. Gladstone, for evening receptions at Marlborough House where the Science and Art Department was domiciled from 1852 to 1857.
The meeting which formally defined the objects of the Club was summoned by circular of the Hon. Sec. and ' Organizer ', Mr. Robinson, subsequently Sir Charles Robinson, and was held on the i8th February, 1857, at the Studio
Preface
of the Baron Marochetti, 34 Onslow Square, with the Marchese d'Azeglio, Sardinian Minister, in the Chair. The purpose was ' to hold receptions, or "conversazioni", from November to July, at which objects of art and virtu will be collected and exhibited.'
Ladies were eligible to attend the receptions without payment of the annual subscription and with the privilege of introducing a visitor. The lady members were :
Miss Burdett Coutts
Miss Susan Durant
Mrs. Ford
The Countess Dowager of Lich field
Lady Molesworth Mrs. Palliser The Lady Rolle The Hon. Mrs. Villiers
From the beginning, as now, professional dealers were not eligible for election. By degrees the Club came to include connoisseurs, artists and critics who were more or less collectors, as may be seen from the following list comprising 140 names of those who contributed to its early success. The 97 original members are marked ' OM '.
OM The Marquess of Abercorn, K.G.,
P.C.
OM Samuel Addington, Esq. OM William Angerstein, Esq. OM The . Hon. William Ashley.
Member of Committee S. A. R. le Due d'Aumale OM The Marchese d'Azeglio, Sardi- nian Minister. Member of Committee
H. Nugent Bankes Esq. Thomas Baring, Esq., M.P. OM Alexander Barker, Esq. OM C. Villiers Bayly, Esq.
Wentworth B. Beaumont, Esq.,
M.P. George Cavendish Bentinck, Esq.,
M.P.
A. J. Beresford-Hope, Esq., M.P. OM The Rev. Thomas Berney
H. G. Bohn, Esq.
H. B. Brabazon, Esq. OM The Marquess of Breadalbane OM The Rev. W. Davenport Bromley OM The Lord Broughton
Charles Butler, Esq. OM The Earl Cadogan OM Sir Archibald Campbell, Bt., M.P. OM Sir Hugh Hume Campbell, Bt. OM W. H. Carpenter, Esq. OM The Viscount Chelsea
Edward Cheney, Esq. OM Henry Cole, Esq. Member of
Committee
OM William Coningham, Esq. OM The Hon. William Cowper, M.P.
G. Wodehouse Currie, Esq. OM The Hon. Robert Curzon
G. W. Dasent, Esq.
The Lord Delamere
Preface
OM The Lord De L'Isle
Sir William Drake OM The Lord Dufferin OM Sir Charles Eastlake, P.R.A.
The Earl of Effingham OM Sir Henry Ellis
The Viscount Falmouth OM Richard Fisher, Esq. Hon.
Treasurer
OM Richard Ford, Esq. OM C. Drury E. Fortnum, Esq. OM Andrew Fountaine, Esq. OM A. Wollaston Franks, Esq.
The Rt. Hon. W. E. Gladstone OM The Earl Granville, K.G., P.C.
F. Seymour Haden, Esq.
Dr. Edward Hamilton OM The Duke of Hamilton OM The Lord Hatherton OM John Henderson, Esq. OM M. J. Higgins, Esq. OM Sir John Hippisley, Bt. OM The Baron Hochschild, Swedish
Minister
OM R. S. Holford, Esq., M.P. OM E. Holmes, Esq. OM Henry T. Hope, Esq.
Louis Huth, Esq. OM M. J. Johnson, Esq.
The Earl of Lanesborough OM The Marquess of Lansdowne,
K.G. OM A. H. Layard, Esq., M.P.
Sir George Phillip Lee OM Sir John G.Shaw Lefevre, K.C.B.
The Lord Henry Lennox, M.P. OM Frederick Locker, Esq. Member of Committee
The Marquess of Londonderry
OM Thomas Longman, Esq.
OM Norman H. Macdonald, Esq.
OM Hollingworth Magniac, Esq.
John Malcolm, Esq., of Poltalloch OM Dudley Coutts Marjoribanks, Esq.,
M.P.
OM Sir John Marjoribanks, Bt. OM The Baron Marochetti. Member
of Committee OM W. Maskell, Esq. OM R. Monckton Milnes, Esq., M.P. OM George J. Morant, Esq. OM C. Octavius S. Morgan, Esq.,
M.P.
OM H. A. J. Munro, Esq., of Novar Sir Roderick Murchison, Bt,
K.C.B.
OM H. Gueneau de Mussy, Esq. OM Robert Napier, Esq. OM G. S. Nicholson, Esq. OM The Lord Overstone. Member
of Committee
OM The Rev. George T. Palmer OM A. Panizzi, Esq.
T. Gambier Parry, Esq.
The Rt. Hon. Sir Robert Peel,
Bt., M.P.
OM The Count Carlo Pepoli OM The Comte de Persigny, French
Ambassador
OM Sir Charles R. Price, Bt. OM Lake Price, Esq.
Sir John Ramsden, Bt., M.P. OM Richard Redgrave, Esq., R.A. OM Samuel Redgrave, Esq. OM J. C. Robinson, Esq. Hon.
Secretary
D. G. Rossetti, Esq. W. M. Rossetti, Esq.
8
Preface
OM Sir Anthony de Rothschild
The Baron Ferdinand de
Rothschild
OM The Baron Lionel de Rothschild OM The Baron Meyer de Rothschild OM John Ruskin, Esq.
George Salting, Esq.
The Lord Saltoun
George Scharf, Esq. OM Sir Francis Scott, Bt. OM Sir Sibbald D. Scott, Bt. OM Henry Danby Seymour, Esq., M.P. Member of Committee OM Alfred Seymour, Esq. OM Felix Slade, Esq. OM William Smith, Esq. OM Ralph Sneyd, Esq. OM The Rev. Walter Sneyd OM H. Scudamore Stanhope, Esq.
Colonel Sir Anthony Sterling,
K.C.B. OM Wm. Stirling, Esq., M.P.
The Viscount Strangford
OM James R. Swinton, Esq.
Christopher Sykes, Esq., M.P. OM The Lord de Tabley OM The Lord Talbot de Malahide
John Edward Taylor, Esq. OM The Rev. Montague Taylor
The Lord Edward Thynne OM George Tomline, Esq., M.P. OM Travers Twiss, Esq. OM M. Uzielli, Esq.
Henry Vaughan, Esq. OM The Lord Ward
The Earl of Warwick OM The Rev. H. Wellesley, D.D. OM William Wells, Esq. OM Algernon West, Esq. OM M. Van der Weyer, Belgian Minister
J. A. McNeill Whistler, Esq. OM James Wilson, Esq., M.P. OM The Rt. Hon. James Stuart
Wortley, M.P. OM M. Digby Wyatt, Esq.
Among connoisseurs and critics there occur the names of John Ruskin and W. M. Rossetti, and among artists those of F. Seymour Haden, H. B. Brabazon, D. G. Rossetti, and James McNeill Whistler. Though eminently good company in his way, and to those who played up to him, Whistler did not prove to be a clubable man in Dr. Johnson's sense. At any rate his presence under the same roof as his brother-in-law Seymour Haden did not make for harmony. Seymour Haden complained to the Committee that Whistler 'had assaulted him in a tavern in Paris ', and, after some correspondence and discussion at a special general meeting in December 1867, Whistler's membership was terminated by eighteen votes against eight. W. M. Rossetti thereupon resigned, and his resig- nation was followed shortly afterwards by that of his brother Dante Gabriel.
The receptions at Marlborough House were followed by others at South Kensington when the Museum removed thither. They were also held in the private houses of various members, and the Due d'Aumale, the Marchese d'Azeglio, Mr. Thomas Baring, Mr. Beresford Hope, Mr. Wentworth Beau- mont (subsequently Lord Allendale), Mr. Gladstone, Mr. John Henderson,
Preface 9
Mr. Holford, Mr. Louis Huth, Mr. John Malcolm, Mr. Dudley Marjoribanks (Lord Tweedmouth), Baron Marochetti, Mr. Charles Mills (Lord Hillingdon), Lord Overstone, Baron Lionel de Rothschild, and many others are recorded as having ' received the Society ' — some of them year after year. The object was defined to be ' to facilitate intercourse between men of Art predilections, and especially those who are collectors, with a view of giving them convenient opportunities of comparing their acquisitions, and of criticizing, and obtaining information in connexion with Art subjects '.
It was a time when club houses, now so numerous, were few, and there was none specially dedicated to Art and Collectors. The South Kensington Museum was then only in the early years of its existence, and the collections at the British Museum were far less extensive than at present. With the exception of the gatherings occasionally held at the rooms of the Society of Antiquaries, the club gave at that time to those interested in the Fine Arts almost the only opportunities of comparing masterpieces, discussing attributions, and uncovering the wiles of restorers and fakers.
In this manner members became familiar with countless works belonging to the Due d'Aumale, now the heritage of the French Nation at Chantilly ; with the splendid drawings by Old Masters of Mr. Malcolm of Poltalloch, now in the British Museum, but then well shown in the old square brick-built house at the corner of Great Stanhope Street and Park Lane, since pulled down; Mr. Beresford Hope's jewels; Mr. Mills's French Furniture and English Portraits ; Lord Overstone's seventeenth-century Dutch Masterpieces, auto- graphs, and Famille Rose ' Garnitures de Cheminee ', unique in size, decoration, and colour ; with the Reynoldses, Lawrences, and Dutch Pictures of Mr. Thomas Baring ; with Baron Lionel, Baron Ferdinand, Baron Meyer, and Sir Anthony de Rothschild's mediaeval goldsmiths' and silversmiths' work, Renais- sance jewels, bronzes, and enamels, to name a few only of the objects to which that family has applied its genius for collecting. In this manner the old members of the club sought to put in practice the motto of Grolier, ' Sibi et amicis', and to justify their own — ' ^iXoKaXovfifv avtv /xaAa/a'ay'.
The old Minute Books contain records of these gatherings. Typical among them was that of the 2gth June, 1865, when 'the concluding conversazione of the season was held at the residence of R. S. Holford, Esq., M.P.' The specialities for illustration were : Ancient Venetian, Bohemian, Dutch, and other glasswares. (2) Bookbinding and works in Stamped Leather. (3) Maiolica wares in general. (4) Gold and Silversmiths' work. (5) Faience of Henry II.
B
lo Preface
Nineteen members contributed specimens. They met in the congenial milieu of their host's collections of pictures of all schools, MSS. from the ninth to the sixteenth centuries, Rembrandt Etchings and Drawings by Old Masters, Early Printed Books, Block Books, and Early Illustrated Books with Engravings on Wood and on Copper, &c., all finding their appropriate setting in the ordered spaces of Dorchester House — itself a work of Art.
Mr. Holford's influence and example were great with his contemporaries as well as with the younger generation. Therefore a few words about him and his achievement may not be out of place.
He was endowed with a sense of proportion that developed into la vue juste. His enthusiasm was under control, his choice was deliberate, and his range catholic. In painting he sought examples of the maturity of every school, preferring, at least for the atmosphere of a classical palazzo, the fullness of the summer of Art to its colder springtime. But for an English country house he felt the fascination of youth and its effort to break the fetters of tradition, delve into Nature, and reach freedom of self-expression ; as is evidenced by several primitives and Pre-Raphaelites from Westonbirt in this exhibition as well as by his painted books and the miniature altarpiece of Pesellino recently exhibited here. While he avoided 'prentice work, he admitted the Eclectics for their good drawing and painting. But he had no sympathy with the cult of the crude, or the decadent, and was not one to be satisfied with the maxim -rrXiov rjfttffv Trai'Tor. Living before the controversy of ' Art for Art's Sake', he rejected Nieuwenhuys's famous Titian, ' Tarquin and Lucrece', but only because he had no studio in which an artist might hang a picture whose subject is ' The expense of spirit in a waste of shame '.* Above all he demanded beauty of composition, line, and colour, and demanded also a noble subject along with the life-giving touch of a Master. While he was strong on first principles as accepted in his day, his mind was open. His relations with artists show that he was accessible to the aspirations of experiment as well as to the lessons of history. Legally-minded himself — three of his forefathers
* SONNET No. CXXIX. — Credo che fin hora la Mta vostra halbia riceuuta la pitiura di Lucrezia Romano, violata da Tarquino. (Commencement of Titian's letter of i Aug. 1571, at the age of 94 to Philip II.) What the Catholic King did with the Lucrezia is uncertain. She passed out of sight and out of mind for 70 years until the Earl of Arundel presented her, or her counterfeit, to Charles I. At the sale by Cromwell's orders of the Whitehall Collection Jabach bought the picture and sold it to Louis XIV, out of whose gallery it passed into the hands of a series of collectors, Mr. Bates, Mr. Conyngham, the Marquis of Hertford, and Lord Northwick. Nieuwenhuys bought and sold it twice. Crowe and Cavalcaselle knew the picture well and the ravages of time and the restorer that mar it ; the ' Northwick Lucrezia ' commends itself (they say) neither in form nor in treatment to modern taste, but one still sees that it is a work of Titian's advanced age. Its last appearance was at Christie's in 1911 at the Charles Butler sale where it fetched £2,730. Dimensions, 74x56-^ in.
Preface 1 1
were Masters in Chancery — he respected the lawless fancy of an artist and a man's right to express his mood and his meaning in the material of his choice.
Tell me where is Fancy bred, Or in the heart, or in the head? How begot, how nourished?
He belonged to the race of Bacon and Blackstone and contributed in his own sphere towards elucidating the distinction between good and bad, as the laws of right and wrong in the fine arts broaden down from precedent to precedent in an ever- widening field. In short, his mind worked inductivelyas well as deductively, and it was the combination of heart and head in pursuit of beauty and truth that accounts for his influence and entitles him to this memorial. Masterpieces of many schools hang in harmony together in his two houses. In Rembrandt, Titian, Velazquez, Rubens, Van Dyck, Gaudenzio, Lotto, and others (not to mention landscape painters) he found side by side the highest and the homeliest types of humanity. He felt that while there is no higher flight of imagination than theirs, there is also no greater realism. And yet there is no discord.
He was born in 1808, and was a great builder as well as a great collector. Early in life he conceived the desire of erecting a house in London that would be very different from the prevailing architecture and taste of the Victorian Era. At length the opportunity occurred to purchase from the Ecclesiastical Commissioners the site of old Dorchester House with its hundred yards of frontage to Park Lane between South Street and Deanery Street. Of all the Arts, architecture came first with him, combined with worthy surroundings ; other arts and crafts were subsidiary, and contributed, in appropriate setting, to the adornment and perfection of an interior as a whole. He would even reject a fine picture if it did not exactly suit the place he could give it, and thus the Francia altarpiece with its lunette now hangs in the National Gallery instead of at the end of the ball-room at Dorchester House. Still, pending the elaboration of plans by his architect, Vulliamy, to embody his idea of an Italian palazzo, he collected in anticipation, and stored numerous smaller pictures and objects in a house in Russell Square acquired for the purpose.
When once his conception had been made visible in drawings, measured in quantities, and translated into heavy weight, foundations began to arise to his bidding, and the actual construction occupied three years, 1853-6.
He was also a Maecenas in the Roman sense to Alfred Stevens amongst others — sculptor, painter and artist in every material that he touched. The decoration of the dining-room at Dorchester House was left wholly to Stevens and was incomplete at his death. But his genius lives in the well-known
12 Preface
marble fireplace with its two supporting figures, also in wood carvings, and in designs for the painted cove and ceiling in three compartments. No other artist has been allowed, or has sought, to lay hands on Stevens's work to finish it.
Dorchester House was hardly completed and filled with the results of some twenty years of collecting, when Mr. Holford began plans with Vulliamy for pulling down and rebuilding Westonbirt in Gloucestershire. The present house is the third upon that site. Two small engravings of the earlier gabled manor-houses are exhibited in the Club drawing-room along with a photo- graph of the last one. It stands on a plateau of the Cotswolds, six miles from Badminton and four from the escarpment which bounds the left bank of the Severn, and whence valley after valley breaks down to the river. The garden slopes from the south front to a watercourse down which some of the upper springs of the Avon run, visible in flood time, but just underground for the rest of the year. The surroundings afforded the builder scope for the landscape gardening and arboriculture to which he was passionately devoted in later life, and with which he enhanced the dignity of the house.
Its style is that of James I, and marks the period, as at Hardwick, Castle Ashby, Longleat, and Wollaton, when low rooms, and small, such as prevailed in Tudor Houses, had given place to large and lofty proportions ; and perpendicular lines with aspiring gables and chimneys were yielding to the dominant horizontal lines of Classic Architecture and Wren. Mr. Holford used to say that Wollaton was most in his mind in the building of Westonbirt.
The exterior was completed about 1870; but much remained to do after his death in 1892, including the decoration of the three principal rooms and the disposition of the pictures and other objects which he had destined for Westonbirt. Not until the summer of 1921 was this accomplished by his son, and sundry maiolica, armoires, and cassoni, besides pictures and drawings that had been lost sight of, were brought to light again. Many are unknown even to visitors and friends. Yet others have left their home only on rare occasions when, for instance, this Club held special exhibitions of Ferrarese, Milanese, Umbrian, Venetian and Florentine art, and drew, never in vain, on the generosity of Sir George ; or an appeal came from Amsterdam or Paris, or from the Royal Academy, for a loan of the Rembrandts.
The Committee felt it a happy occasion, and a tribute due to a great collector, to revive the old custom when one member ' received the Society ' as host, so to speak, although perforce in the Club Gallery to-day instead of in his own house.
CATALOGUE
PICTURES
1. ST. GEORGE. Painter unknown, c. 1500.
The youthful Saint stands bareheaded in armour, erect, pallid, and cold as if carven in stone. He shows no trace of fight, nor joy in victory. The dragon is compounded in the likeness of a bear with a tail of a serpent, paralysed and dying of a wound that has severed the spine across the shoulder-blades, but which the Saint's spear is not broad enough, nor weighty enough, to inflict. His red shoes with extravagant points are similar to those in the picture of Richard II in Westminster Abbey, and as depicted in the MS. Epistle to Richard II at the British Museum, Royal MS. 20 B. vi, fol. 2.
Its authorship has been the subject of many guesses, e.g. Spanish or Hispano-Flemish, or some unknown Englishman. But it is pro- bably South-German, i.e. of the Suabian School, whose head was Zeitblom of Ulm. The painter doubtless saw his subject as a statue ; and found his imagination fettered by tradition and the less tractable material of the sister art. St. George's crimson cloak, red shoes, and the red cross on shield and pennon add a touch of warmth and life. Panel, 3o| x 1 5^ in.
2. CORONATION OF THE VIRGIN. Florentine, c. 1440-1450.
Probably a leaf from a splendid book. Painted on gold ground, some of which in the left-hand top corner is exfoliating. Similar leaves are exhibited in the books at San Marco, the work of miniaturists under their master Fra Angelico. But here there is more variety and movement in the figures, and the portraiture is more realistic ; where- fore Sir Claude Phillips connects this miniature with a ' Virgin and Child with angels beneath a floral canopy ' in the collection of Sir Herbert Cook, which he holds to be a work of the earliest time of Benozzo Gozzoli (1420-1497). Vellum, 14! x 12^ in.
14 Pictures
3. NATIVITY. Florentine, c. 1470-1490.
The ruined roofless stable is lit from two different quarters. The level rays of sunrise tinge the top of the stable wall with a rosy flush ; while a milder light from the star that ' came and stood over where the young Child was ', penetrates the interior and makes luminous the blue shadows in the small nude body, touching its rondeurs with warm colour, as He lies on his back with arms outstretched towards His Mother. The same light warms the hands and rippling hair of Mary Virgin, kneeling and giving thanks, likewise the hands of Joseph, who is seated on a saddle and lifts a protecting arm. The figures, just under life-size, show character and originality ; they belong to the period between the death of Filippo Lippi, 1469, and the advent of Botticelli and Filippino. The yellow and rose of Joseph's cloak and habit form an irregular mass of colour, and recall Ghirlandajo (in the ' Visitation ' of the Louvre) or Bartolommeo di Giovanni — ' Alunno di Domenico'. Also maybe noted the naturalism of two shepherds in the background, one raising himself to gaze at the Star in the East, and the other seated, incurious ; while the joyous procession of the Kings, preceded by a Landsknecht in harlequin dress and followed by a gay company in variegated costume on horseback with a clown, or fool, towards the rear, presses across a bridge to reach the journey's end. In type, demeanour, and costume the figures hail from the north, and the sloping roofs, with a fagade in steps, of the village they are passing belong to high valleys in the Alps ; and this suggests that the artist may even have been born north of Turin, and have seen the ' Tedeschi ' crossing the passes, but subsequently became domiciled in Florence, and artistically a Tuscan.
Panel, 48 x 52 in.
4. PORTRAIT OF A MAN. Petrus Cristus (1440-1470).
Life-size bust and shoulders, in black fez cap against a dark grey background, about thirty years of age, clean shaven, his white collar just seen above a crimson doublet edged with fur. The attribution is due to Sir C. Holmes. Dying as Petrus Cristus did about 1473, he forms a link between Jan van Eyck (d. 1441) and Hans Memling (d. 1491), and may, as Mr. Roger Fry suggests, have influenced Antonello (1430-1479). Panel, i8|x 13^ in.
Pictures 15
5. PI ETA. Possibly an early Perugino, £.1475.
The nude figure of Christ stands out between the purple in which His Mother is draped and the crimson cloak of St. John ; while Mary Magdalen stands detached on the left and helpless, and the two other Maries with beautiful veiled heads look over St. John's shoulders. Traces of the self-conscious sentiment of Perugino are visible in the red eyelids, the poses and expressive fingers of all except the Virgin Mother and her Son ; but the sentiment is not overcharged. The Mother's grief has spent itself and her face is classic, bound with white linen round the forehead and under the chin, like a nun. The Umbrian sweetness, and the verditer showing through the flesh-tones, are common to Pinturicchio and others of the Perugian school. Panel, ii£x i6| in.
6. PORTRAIT OF A GENTLEMAN. Bartolommeo Veneto.
Life-size, half-length figure before a vermilion curtain looped up so as to show blue sky above. He wears an enamelled jewel of a winged bull in a black triangular hat, and a black cloak with fur collar. The edge of his doublet crosses diagonally the horizontal line of his jerkin underneath — a characteristic of the master's execution. Inscribed on a cartellino — 1520. From the Casa del Mayno, Milan. Panel, 26f x 20 in.
7. PORTRAIT OF A LITTLE GIRL OF THREE OR FOUR.
Seventeenth Century. Painter unknown.
Full length, standing facing in lace dress to her feet, with crimson bows and embroidery, coral necklet, and jewel on her breast. Some- body has attracted her attention, and a goldfinch held on a red cord flutters away out of hand. ' She hath it in her heart to give it thee.' Will she make the advance ? Forse che sl,forse che no.
By some artist unidentified, probably Italian by birth, but much travelled, and steeped in the work of Hispano-Flemish Masters. Such was Sofonisba Anguisciola, who died in 1623 at the age of 96. Canvas, 28|x 19! in.
8. PORTRAIT OF A MAN. Painter unknoivn, c. 1520.
Aged about 30, face clean shaven, steady eyes, full of vitality and character, humorous and delicately modelled features ; the half smile
1 6 Pictures
that flits over his countenance and the shut mouth denote one who will read you sooner than be read. The painter comes out of the school of Jan Joesten van Calcar (who died about 1519). Panel, 17 x 16 in.
g. PORTRAIT OF A BOY. Giovanni Bellini, c. 1490-1505.
About 1 2 years of age with light brown hair, thick and curly ; a touch of melancholy in the turn of the head, grave eyes, and full pleading lips. Whether the execution is entirely by the hand of Giambellino has been doubted.
A cartellino which may once have borne a name is upon the marble parapet, and on either side, in Roman capitals, ' OPVS BELLINI IOANNIS VENETI ', the second L longer than the first ; below are the words ' NON ALITER ' (in capitals twice as large) by a later hand. Panel, 15x9 in.
10. LANDSCAPE. Domenichino.
A river flowing clear, deep, and slow between high banks ; a con- ventional castello and trees on the further bank and two naturalistic willows in the foreground to left. A baptism by St. John the Baptist of a couple is taking place on the shingle by the stream, while a man in the foreground, who presumably has just gone through the ceremony, is pulling on his stockings. Other small figures include a woman with her child, pointing to draw the attention of two men. In the history of landscape, Domenichino, 1581-1641, precedes Claude, 1600-1682, Caspar Poussin, 1613-1675, and Salvator Rosa, 1615-1673. On copper, lof x 15! in.
11. PORTRAIT OF A LORD DE LA WARR.
A follower of Holbein, c. 1555.
Age about 21, full face, figure to below the knees, standing astraddle, like bluff King Hal, with good humour in his unflinching gaze. Bon camarade to his friends, he touches the hilt of his sword, game to ruffle and fight for pride of blood, not without insolence if the occasion serves. He wears a double chain round his neck, slashed black surcoat over red jerkin, black cape edged with gold, embroidered collar and cuffs. Complexion blonde, moustache shaved, the down of a fair beard
Pictures 17
just sprouting, the minute rendering of which and certain hatchings in the flesh-tones may serve to identify other work of the artist, who is probably Gwillim Stretes, Painter to Edward VI in 1551. The portrait of the Earl of Surrey at Hampton Court is by the same hand.
Acquired as ' portrait of Lord De La Warr ', and in fact the arms on his ring, charged with a shield bearing arg., a fess wavy sa., belong to the West family, and may be those of Sir Thomas West, K.G., Qth Baron De La Warr ; or those of his half-brother Sir George West, or else of Sir George's son Sir William, knighted in 1568 and summoned to Parliament as Baron De La Warr in 1572.
12. PORTRAIT OF A GIRL. Florentine, c. 1450.
Under life-size in profile to left. Her golden hair is drawn back from the forehead according to the custom of the time, plaited, bound with a narrow ribbon of the same colour, supported in an embroidered net of seed pearls, and fastened with a jewel at the top of the head.
It may be compared with the profile portrait of a lady by Domenico Veneziano at Berlin, or more closely to the profile ascribed to Alessio Baldovinetti in the National Gallery, where the hair is treated in the same way and topped by a jewel. Until recently the background was covered with black paint, the removal of which disclosed that, where the damage of time has spared it, the original was dark slate colour.
In the Reports of Berlin Museums Feb.-March 1920 it is suggested that the picture may be Elisabetta di Montefeltro, wife of Roberto Malatesta, and Umbro-Florentine, descending from Piero della Fran- cesca, rather than pure Florentine.
Panel, 15! x io£ in., exclusive of gilt-moulding to the panel.
13. THE MUSE OF PAINTING. Venetian, c. 1560.
Small female figure standing in a niche between two caryatides, richly dressed in the Venetian style. She holds her palette in her left hand, together with a panel resting against her hip, and two brushes in her right hand. The welcome of her outspread arms, the poise of her head, the dark observant eyes beneath her fair hair, the curtsey of the figure towards her unseen company and, above all, her type are inspired by Paul Veronese. Probably painted for a piece of furniture. Panel, iS^x 16 in.
1 8 Pictures
14. HOLY FAMILY. Joos van der Beke, or Van Cleef, 1520-1567.
The execution is highly finished with minute accessories. Joseph wears a straw hat, as often occurs with this master. Acquired as ' Van Eyck '. Panel, 28| x 21 in.
15. ST. THOMAS AQUINAS. Painter unknown, c. 1480-1490.
Life-size, half-length of the Saint, arrested for a moment in the act of writing with a reed pen in a small 410 note-book with scarlet binding. The left hand is significant and sustains the book, while thumb and forefinger hold the inkpot and the second finger marks the open page. The white inside his black hood marks the identity of the Saint. The vivacity of the hazel eyes, the determination of the mouth, the frown of the knit brows, the strength and expressiveness of the hands are characteristic of the painter, while the drawing and modelling denote a great artist, as in the Church of the Ognissanti you may feel the power of Botticelli's St. Augustine (1444-1510) facing Ghirlandajo's St. Jerome (1449-1494). Whoever the painter was, he was a delineator of the inward and spiritual, as well as of the outward and visible man.
The authorship of this portrait has aroused much discussion. Gifted and trained critics differ even as to the school to which it belongs. Thus Sir C. Phillips, after an eloquent appreciation of ' the swift flame of thought that commands and moves the strong yet sensitive hands ', and its ' absolute momentariness, rare in the late Quattrocento ', says it would hardly be over-bold to attribute it to the head of the Ferrarese School — Cosimo Tura himself. Sir Herbert Cook also believes it to be Ferrarese, viz. by Baldassare D'Este. Others hold it to be North Italian and suggest Montagna, or Gentile Bellini, this last attribution being due to Mr. Roger Fry. Gentile Bellini (he says) is the only one of the Venetians who, ' abandoning the descriptive style which was indigenous to his native Venice, arrived at the austerity and structural logic of the Florentines '. And he aptly refers to the newly uncovered signature of Andrea del Castagno on certain frescoes in San Zaccaria. Lastly, there is the claim of the Florentine School and especially of Botticelli who naturally absorbed and developed the genius for por- traiture of Castagno. His St. Augustine (above mentioned) also holds an inkpot, with a reed pen, in his expressive, twisted, fingers ; and the requisite force of character and supreme portraiture are plain to see in the Sistine Chapel, and indeed throughout Botticelli's work. Coarse linen laid upon wood. i8|x 14 in.
Picttires 19
16. PORTRAIT OF A MAN.
Giovanni de Bust (Cariani), 1485/90-1547.
Half-length, life-size, portrait of a big, fair man and strong, with blonde complexion, beard and moustache, blue eyes, rather small in the relation to the broad face and heavy jaw ; enveloped in an ample black cloak with deep fur collar, and wearing a soft black cap falling down over the farther ear. The fair North Italian type is not unusual with the master from Bergamo among the foot-hills of the Alps.
Acquired in Milan as by Titian from the family of del Mayno. Canvas, 29! x 30 in.
17. CEPHALUS AND PROCRIS. Venetian, 1550-1560.
A Venetian poesia, or painted poem. Procris lies dying of a wound in the breast from the never-erring spear which lies beside her — the fatal gift of Artemis. A Cretan hound, the other gift of the goddess, sits at attention at her feet, and Cephalus bends over to take her in his arms. His crimson and white tunic, her brilliant blue dress and the orange drapery on which she lies form a contrast of warm colour against the cooler blues and greens of water, sky, and woodland. In the middle distance a shepherd lifts his arms, helpless to arrest the tragedy.
Another such poesia is in the Wantage collection, on canvas, 14 x 34 in.; 'The babe Jupiter and the Melian nymphs', by Tintoretto. The subject of the dying lady does not lend itself for a Tintoretto to depict the movement of one who vera incessu patuit dea. In spite of resemblances, this painted poem descends not from Tintoretto but from Paolo Veronese.
Panel, 1 5 x 3 1 \ in. Oval in oblong, the spandrils at each end being filled up to simulate a Sansovino frame in grisaille.
18. PORTRAIT OF A LADY. Justus Sustermans, 1597-1681.
This portrait was long held, owing to the pose, costume, treatment of the hands and beauty of the sitter, to be by Van Dyck and of his early Genoese period, but is now definitely given to the painter who was two years older than Van Dyck and survived him by forty years. He was no mere imitator, and if his penetration into life was not quite so deep and his palette not quite so magical as Van Dyck's, he was still a great artist, the product of the time, and of their pictorial lineage. Canvas, 53x35 in.
2O Pictures
ig. GLI INNAMORATI. Painter unknown.
Double portrait, life-size, half-lengths. He stands behind in armour, black-avised, motionless, ' and nothing else saw all day long, save side- long would she bend,' but would not meet his gaze. She is a fair Venetian with rippling golden hair and black eyes, de'collete'e to the white chemisette with neither necklace nor jewel, opulent, un bel pezzo di donna, such that the curve from elbow to elbow of her rich dark slate-coloured cloak edged with fur forms a quarter of a circle across the picture. Her left hand holds a golden apple touching the head of a stone lion of St. Mark. Will she give it to him ? Is he as black as he is painted ? Her right hand rests on a tazza on which may be read
PVL . . R. for ' PVLCHRA.'
Canvas, 33lx32l in- Acquired sixty or seventy years ago in Florence when every portrait of this class was called Giorgione. The conception, the types of the lovers and the pause before the decisive moment between them descend from Titian, who sees his subject as a drama, whereas Giorgione sees it in a dream. No painter of the golden age of Venetian art ever painted on so dark a ground or drew with the brush so black an outline to the features. It is a pasticcio, or perhaps a copy in a different tonality of a lost Titian. It was in the possession of an old gentleman who had lived all his life in hopes of getting a mad price for his 'Giorgione'. Mr. Holford used humorously to tell how he got 50,000 francs and died of excitement and satisfaction within the week.
20. LANDSCAPE. Adam Elsheimer, 1578-1610.
A clump of trees, including a stone pine ; a low horizon with a chateau amid cultivated land and trees, over which a cumulus of clouds is rising, such as Wilson and Crome love ; bulrushes and other water- loving plants fringe a still pool with four ducks in windless calm. ' Not so much life as on a Summer's day Robs not one light seed from the feathered grass.'
On copper, io| x 13! in.
Pictures 21
2L THE CHARIOT OF APHRODITE. David Teniers, 1610-1690.
The goddess, born of the foam of the sea, sleeps on red drapery in her car drawn in triumph by doves over the waves and surrounded by a jubilant troop of Tritons, mermaidens, and amorini, her worshippers.
Poseidon (?) is in attendance by the wheel of the car, and two wing- less babes, the one riding a dolphin and the other swimming, may be Rhodes and Herophilus, born of the love of Poseidon and Aphrodite. The source of this pasticcio may be a picture by Rubens.
Signed D TENIERS F. Panel, g| x 14! in.
22. PORTRAIT OF A VENETIAN GENTLEMAN.
Tintoretto, c. 1515-1594.
Three-quarter length life-size figure of a man, in black dress with fair and healthy complexion, and blonde beard.
Inscribed & : xxvm. M. in. A. M. u. XLVIII.
A glimpse of landscape on the left may assist to distinguish Tintoretto's foliage from that of Paolo Veronese in the picture of Diana and Actseon that hangs below (No. 23). Both are conventional.
Jacopo Robusti, il Tintoretto, was born between 1512 and 1518 and died in 1594. Thus this portrait was painted when he was between 30 and 36, and the subject of it was 28 and three months. A copy, without the inscription, is in the Doria Gallery at Rome attributed to Bassano.
Canvas, 43! x 36! in.
23. DIANA AND ACTION. Paolo Veronese, 1528-1588.
A Venetian poesia. Artemis in Arcadia caught by Actseon unawares bathing with her nymphs in a pool. The goddess, and five out of her eight maidens, have laid aside their raiment along with their bows, quivers, and arrows, while Actseon, who has stolen up unseen through the trunks of trees and overhanging boughs, stays motionless . in full view on the slope to the water, his head on his hand and his spear by his side. The invention and design are the master's own, and perhaps the execution too.
Canvas, 43 x gf in.
22 Pictures
24. ALTAR PIECE. Marco Palmezzano of Forll, 1456-1538.
The Madonna enthroned between St. John the Baptist with staff and scroll ECCE AGNUS DEI and St. John the Divine with pen and book. Signed, MARCHVS PALMIZZANVS FOROLIVIENSE FECERVNT. The influence of Giovanni Bellini predominates. Panel, 71 x 57 in.
25. ATALANTA AND MELEAGER. Paolo Veronese, 1528-1588.
The story of the Caledonian Boar Hunt. CEneus, king of Caledon, having neglected to offer sacrifice to Artemis, the angry goddess sent a monster-boar to ravage the country, and none had courage to face it till Meleager, son of CEneus, went forth to the hunt. Jasius, father of the Arcadian Atalanta, disappointed of a son, had exposed his daughter on the Parthenian, or virgin, hill, where she was suckled by a she-bear, the symbol of Artemis, and lived a maiden. She slew the centaurs who pursued her, took part in the games, and joined in the Caledonian hunt. Atalanta inflicted the first wound on the boar and Meleager killed it.
The artist has seen the story at the moment when the boar's head is presented to Atalanta by Meleager, who loved her, in a grove of trees with a purple canopy spread between the trunks. The eleven other figures (over and above the boy who has brought the head in a sack) are armed with the weapons of the slaying — spears, a club with iron spikes, and a mallet with a triangular head of stone. The animation of the group on the left, especially the man with a club behind Meleager, may indicate the discontent of the sons of Thestius who deprived Atalanta of the head, and Meleager slew them.
The invention and design are probably of the master himself, if not the entire execution also. Canvas, 43 x g\ in.
26. PORTRAIT OF A MAN ABOUT FORTY.
Paris Bar done, 1 500- 1571.
Life-size, three-quarter length to the knees, with a black beard, and black dress with fur collar, standing against a marble pedestal. Canvas, 45^ x 36 in.
Pictures 23
27. THE MADONNA OF THE MEADOW. Painter unknown, c. 1530.
In the centre the figure of Mary Virgin, under life-size, kneels upon a flowery hillock. Her right hand reaches down to a basket of roses and pink forget-me-nots, while the Child, seated on the ground beside her, reaches up to take the flowers she holds in her left hand. Behind her head the double trunks of an ilex give shade. The influence of Palma, master of Bonifazio, prevails over that of other painters, and her type, and the folds of her drapery, suggest one or other of the eight assistants of Bonifazio. The landscape is crowded with little hills and valleys, castles, palaces, towns and farms, a lake and streams of water, sundry small figures, including a kneeling saint, besides other accessories and episodes borrowed from contemporary masters. Thus an eagle screaming on a rail comes from the School of Bellini, the St. Jerome, with his lion, praying and beating his breast in front of a Bellinesque grove of trees, is derived from Titian, while the figure of St. Joseph, with the ass and an ox hard by behind the flowery hillock, recall Palma Vecchio and suggest a ' Riposo ' or Rest on the Flight into Egypt. The author is probably one of the Family of the Santa Croce, whose output covered from 1510 to 1550, more plagiarists than eclectics, while the Bolognese were eclectics rather than plagiarists. Canvas, 4of x 55! in.
28. PORTRAIT OF HELENA FOURMENT. /totow, 1577-1640.
The second wife of Peter Paul Rubens, whom he married on the 6th Dec. 1630, being then 52 while she was a girl of 16.
Small life-size, seated, wearing a head-dress in the shape of a small inverted saucer of black velvet, or straw, topped by a ball made of fringe and mounted on a stem, calculated to support the mantilla that lies over her shoulders — the same head-dress as in the full-length portrait of 1638-1639 in the Alphonse Rothschild collection in France, and in the half-length at Munich, both of which are several years later in date.
Full-face, the head erect, the eyes alert, serious, untroubled, but not without a look of introspection produced by a slight flattening of the curve of the lid of her left eye, which is not quite so wide awake as the right eye. The right eyebrow is finished in sanguine over crayon while her left eyebrow is left in crayon. The double row of pearls
24 Pictures
shows several pentimenti from the first semi-circular line up to the point when he decided that there should be no more and no less than two rows, one of which should cross the other ; and, having indicated so much, left it unfinished. One may note also the delicate corrections in sanguine to the fingers of her right hand.
On paper. The paper round the drawing has been cut away about a quarter of an inch from the drawing, which has been mounted.
Size, 23^x 2of in.
29. PORTRAIT OF A MAN ABOUT FIFTY. Rembrandt, 1606-1669.
In sanguine, crayon, bistre and wash. Signed and dated, Rembrandt f. 1634. One of the two drawings here exhibited is from the Aylesford collection and the other from the Warwick collection, both good provenances. The copy is by Josi, done for Ploos van Amstel's fac- similes (1821). A technical test is afforded by ti\z pentimenti, or improve- ments by the artist in the course of execution. No copy has pentimenti, and, in this case, the original is distinguishable by sundry slight ones ; as to two of which Josi has been doubtful, and as to another he has emphasized what Rembrandt left vague. The copy deserves to deceive, and might deceive anybody who could not see them placed alongside of each other and recognize in the original a delicacy, mobility, and brimfulness of life, in short an atmosphere that defies expression in words. The original, from the Aylesford Collection, is on vellum. Size, 14! x i of in.
30. LA JEUNE MARIEE. Ascribed to Ferdinand Bol, c. 1613-1680.
Assuming that the attribution is correct, the date of this portrait must be soon after 1636, when Bol became a pupil of Rembrandt — an early work of the artist who was born not later than 1 6 1 6 nor earlier than 161 1. It bears the monogram R* v Rijn pinx* (date at present inde- cipherable) behind her left elbow ; but about 1 887 Sir Walter Armstrong was strongly of the opinion that it was by Bol, and it was not included in Bode's Rembrandt published in 1901. It was exhibited as by Bol at Burlington House in 1903 when Mr. Lionel Cust first noticed the monogram. The portrait shows some penetration into the character of a budding huisvrouw, barely eighteen years of age. The bloom of her com- plexion and the rondeur of her cheeks are still untouched by the cares of
Pictures 25
married life ; not a line — not a crow's foot — is there to add expression to the mouth and modulate her full lower lip. The eyes are modest, serious, reticent, shy. She has lost the insouciance and gaiety of a child, and has become possessed of a secret. She wears a sapphire ring on the third finger of her left hand held across the figure. Canvas, 53 x 40 in.
31. PORTRAIT OF HIMSELF. Rembrandt, 1606-1669.
Age thirty-eight, described by Bode, vol. iv, p. 259, as ' Rembrandt seated holding a short sword in a red sheath '. The sword is now believed to be a Jewish roll. Blue eyes and dark violet cap and doublet. Signed Rembrandt f. 1644. Canvas, 39 x 33! in.
32. PORTRAIT OF THE WIFE OF JUSTUS LIPSIUS.
Rembrandt, 1606-1669.
Portrait of an old lady about 80 years of age. Bode, vol. iv, p. 291. No. 192 in the catalogue of the Fesch collection, where it is stated to be signed and dated 1644. Canvas, 49* x 39^ in.
33. PORTRAIT OF TITUS VAN RIJN. Rembrandt, 1606-1669.
Son of the artist's first wife Saskia, born 1641, declared of age in 1665, when he was 24, and died in 1668. He wears a gold chain and a black biretta over long golden curly hair. Bode, vol. vi, p. 445, says ' aged about 1 7 '. Whether this be a true guess or not as to his age, and the exact date of the portrait, it is a splendid example of Rembrandt's late work, 1657-1669.
Signed Rembrandt f. Canvas, 29^ x 24! in.
34. THE ADORATION OF THE SHEPHERDS.
Bonifazio de Pitati, 1487-1553.
A work of his youth, showing the influence of Titian as well as that of his immediate master Palma, and announcing the even greater colourist to come — perhaps the greatest of the Venetian school, as shown by the picture of the Rich Man with his two Ladies and Lazarus, in the Venetian Academy. Canvas, 46! x 59 in.
D
26 Pictures
35. THE PEDLAR. Franz van Mieris (the elder), 1635-1681.
A small figure of a man resting under shelter at midday. Panel, signed F. van Mieris. 9^ x 7^ in.
36. PORTRAIT OF A GENTLEMAN. Gonzales Coques, 1614-1684.
Small full-length figure, standing, in rich black Spanish costume, black hose and doublet with slashed sleeves, white silk stockings. Age about thirty, perhaps a Spaniard in the Netherlands. On copper, oval, 10 x 7! in.
37. A PASTORAL IDYLL. Berghem, 1620-1683.
Heretofore entitled ' Le diamant de la Curiositt'.
A Shepherdess sits working at a piece of coarse embroidery, while behind her a herdsman plays a clarinet ; cattle, sheep, and goats in the foreground.
Panel iaf x Q| in.
Pictures 27
IN THE WRITING ROOM
38. MADONNA. Carlo Dolci, 1618-1686.
Looking down, a deep blue veil over her head. Canvas, 21 x 15 in.
39. LANDSCAPE. Caspar Poussin, 1613-1675.
Canvas, 37sx53i in.
40. THE NATIVITY, AND ADORATION OF THE SHEP-
HERDS. Mazzolino, c. 1480-1530.
More fused, and more natural, than usual with this master, and showing less of his favourite cold creamy marble tones of classical ruins and renaissance palaces contrasted with brick-coloured complexions and strong primary colours in the draperies. Panel, 31 x 24^ in.
41. ADORATION OF THE KINGS. Umbrian School, c. 1500.
Behind the Kings a figure stands, perhaps a portrait. Panel transferred to canvas, g\ x 26| in.
42. ADORATION OF THE KINGS. Venetian, c. 1560-1580.
Upon this picture the question arises, What was the part, if any, taken by Jacopo Robusti, il Tintoretto, in its execution ? The invention and design are his.
Canvas, 18 x 5 if in.
43. VENICE. WITH VIEW OF SANTA MARIA MAGGIORE.
School of Canaletto, 1 7 20-1 780. Canvas, i8|x 26 in.
44. LANDSCAPE. Claude Celtic Le Lorrain, 1600-1680.
From Corsham. Canvas, 37^ x 52 in.
28 Pictures
IN THE DRAWING ROOM
45. MADONNA WITH SAN GIOVANNINO. Painter uncertain.
Whoever was the painter, he was of the Milanese school after it was dominated by Leonardo da Vinci. Attributed originally to Cesare da Sesto, afterwards to Sodoma, and lastly to Giampetrino. An indubitable Giampetrino hangs below it. Panel, 31! x 22-| in.
46. HOLY FAMILY WITH SAN GIOVANNINO. Giampetrino.
Panel, 20^ x 25 -J in.
47. PORTRAIT OF THE DOGE GRITTI. School of Titian.
There must have been, and possibly there is still in existence, a fine original by Titian, from which repetitions were made to meet the demand of municipalities or citizens for a portrait of the head of the Venetian State, all varying in the amount of drawing, or painting, or mere supervision by the master himself down to studio copies by his assistants.
Canvas, 41 x 30 in.
48. A DURBAR OF PEACOCKS. Melchior Hondecoeter.
No mere assembly of domestic fowls, but a durbar of peacocks, wild geese, and wild ducks, a crane and a pheasant, all ready to fight, or to talk.
Canvas, 54 x 64-3 in.
49. PORTRAIT OF A LADY. Flemish, c. 1600.
Painted before the advent of Rubens and Van Dyck, when sitters preferred to be depicted according to the conventions of their station, and as what they wanted to be rather than what they were. Canvas, 42 x 35^ in.
BOOKS, WOOD-WORK, AND CERAMICS
ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPTS
Next after pictures — the big game of collecting — come books, especially painted books. Twelve MSS. illuminated with miniatures are exhibited in Case A, equal in themselves to several whole galleries. As they were described at length in the Burlington Club's Illustrated Catalogue of 1908, a few notes will now suffice.
1. By far the earliest, and the rarest book outside of public libraries,
is the GOSPELS IN LATIN OF THE NINTH CENTURY, from the School of Reims, written in letters of gold on vellum, and containing the Eusebian Canons on twelve pages under classical pediments supported by marble columns, besides full-page pictures of the four Evangelists from a classical source.
2. Next comes the English MS. of the twelfth century from the Abbey
of Bury St. Edmunds, MIRACVLA SANCTI EADMVNDI REGIS ET MART IRIS, together with the Passio Sancti Eadmundi dedicated by Abbo, Abbot of Fleury, to St. Dunstan.
The MSS. proceed onwards through the centuries to about 1525. In the series may be discerned the origin and development of the art of painting up to the time when artists began to see their subjects in atmo- sphere, and discovered that there is no line in Nature, but all is round.
Historically speaking Imagination goes before Execution. Crafts- manship obeys the mood and the meaning of the Artist. Great collectors begin by seeking for perfection, embodied in the full-blown flower of any school at its zenith and before its decadence. They end, often enough, in pursuit of the naivett and childlike grace of those early painters from whom the great masters acknowledge their descent. Early English, French, and Flemish illuminators saw the Bible Story with a curiosity hardly tempered by reverence. Their freedom of invention surpasses that of their successors in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, because they were more careless of the limitations imposed by their material and the difference between what was strictly paintable and not paintable. More-
30 Manuscripts
over the condition of their work appeals to collectors through having been better protected in a library than frescoed or hung on a wall, and more fortunate in escaping the ravages of time and the guile of the faker.
3. LA BIBLE HISTORIES, a French MS. of 1 300 to 1325, is pre-eminent
for invention. It begins with the figure of Almighty God meditating the Creation of the World, and proceeds with the story ; the Sun and the Moon, followed by the Earth without form and void, but surrounded by atmosphere in motion. ' And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters', or, as a certain reverend man of science retranslated it : — ' The Spirit of God created a vibration (mirahafetK) along the surface of the fluids ' (mayim not shamayim), — eager to reconcile the first chapter of Genesis with the nebular theory, and the division of light from darkness with the wave theory of light. ' Let there be light. And there was light.' This was the book that Burne Jones used to come frequently to see, but never got through the whole of the 1,034 pictures. He said that if a new flood came and submerged the earth, this book saved would serve to regenerate Art. It winds up with Lives of the Saints.
This same book was lent to William Morris to help to solace his last summer after his return from the fruitless voyage to Spitzbergen. Morris galloped through it in a week, and wanted more, so the two MSS. next below mentioned were taken to him.
4. PSALTER AND HOURS, a French MS. of 1250-1300 with twenty
pictures from the Creation to the death of Cain, forty-four of the life of Mary Virgin from the Annunciation to the Coronation, and forty- nine episodes in the life of David. The historiated initials, the line end- ings and the grotesques, on burnished gold, fresh as the day they were painted, are characteristic. The style of the pictures betrays two most skilful hands. Morris attributed it to the neighbourhood of Arras, and Clermont. The arms of the owner occur in the upper margin of f. 128 as well as in line-endings.
5. The next book, a PSALTER AND HOURS, French, of 1275-1300,
appealed to him especially because of its association with the Cathedral of Amiens. It was executed for a lady, whose portrait occurs kneeling before the Sainte Vierge and whose arms are connected with the
Manuscripts 31
de Soissons family, perhaps the wife of Jean IV, 1284-1289. Morris noted that St. Firmian and other Amiens saints were distinguished by letters of blue in the Calendar, and that one of the pictures represents the finding of the bones of St. Firmian upon which the north porch of the Cathedral was built. Among many full-page pictures, the book contains one of an episode in the Flight into Egypt : — Horsemen in armour accosting reapers, ' Have ye seen a Man with a Woman and a Child upon an ass pass this way ? ' ' Yea, but that was before our corn was ripe.' The corn had grown miraculously in the night. It is full of jokes and humour, for instance, at the psalm Dixit Insipiens ; also grotesques and naturalistic hunting scenes.
6. Another BOOK OF HOURS for the use of Rome, French c. 1420, with
the Parisian Calendar, contains twenty or more miniatures in the style of the brothers de Limbourg, authors of the Trh riches heures du Dw de Berry at Chantilly.
7. Another MS. is Italian, c. 1490. PETRARCH'S POEMS with full-
page illustrations of each of the six triumphs.
8. Another BOOK OF HOURS resembles the hand of the author of the
Grimani Missal at Venice long loosely ascribed to Memling. It is of the finest Bruges work, 1500-1525, with two portraits of a man and his arms now identified as those of the Suabian family of Rein. The Calendar contains twenty-four pages, depicting the pastimes of the months; and there are besides sixteen full-page miniatures and thirty- two small ones, not to mention exquisite borders of flowers.
9. Another BOOK OF HOURS, of the use of Paris, is identified as contain-
ing miniatures by Jean Bourdichon of Tours, c. 1510, and closely resembles the Hours of Anne de Bretagne at the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris.
10. Another little BOOK OF HOURS of the use of Rome, 4! x 3^ inches,
contains twenty-five small miniatures in the style of Jean Fouquet, two of which are believed to be by himself.
11. DEL MODO DI REGERE E DI REGNARE, a poem on good
Government by Antonio Cornazano written in letters of silver and dedicated to Eleanora Maria Gonzaga, Duchessa di Ferrara, with a portrait of herself in profile for a frontispiece, believed to be not by the hand of a miniaturist, but of a painter — possibly Ercole di Roberti.
32 Manuscripts
12. The STATUTES OF THE ORDER OF ST. MICHEL founded by Louis XI at Amboise, 1469, and containing a large picture of the meeting of the Knights of the Order under the Presidency of the King, as well as a frontispiece of St. Michel. Probably the copy which was presented to Edward VI when he was invested with the Order in 1551. See the argument of Count Paul Durrieu in the Bulletin de la Socie'te' fratifaise de reproductions de MSS. a peintures, Ire Ann£e (1911), No. i, pp. 38-41. His point is that the young man on the left of the French king is Edward VI.
BLOCK BOOKS
I. BIBLIA PAUPERUM.
A complete copy, rubricated but not coloured, of the fourth edition, as distinguished by W. L. Schreiber, of the block book of forty leaves cut and printed in the Netherlands.
Two other complete copies of this edition are recorded, at Paris and Modena; that in the John Rylands Library at Manchester lacks four leaves, while the Berlin and London Print Rooms possess two leaves apiece.
The Biblia Pauperum (Predicatorum) is a work intended to aid poor preachers, who could not afford the complete Bible, in preparing their sermons. On every page a New Testament subject is placed between two Old Testament subjects which bear to it the relation of type to antitype. The subjects are explained by texts cut upon the block, and busts of the prophets or other authors of the Old Testament books are placed at head and foot of the page.
The Netherlandish editions differ from one another only slightly, in the excellence of the cutting, and appear to be all based upon an original set of designs of great artistic merit. This edition, though not quite equal to the first, contains scenes of exquisite beauty. According to W. L. Schreiber, whose opinion is followed in the British Museum Catalogue of Incunabula, none of the block books are earlier than about 1460; older authorities placed them much earlier. The printing, in brownish ink, has been done by placing the paper on the block and rubbing the back of it. The watermark is an anchor.
Block Books 33
2. SPECULUM HUMANAE SALVATIONIS.
A complete copy, uncoloured, of the second Latin edition, being the third of four editions altogether (two with Latin and two with Flemish text) distinguished by W. L. Schreiber.
The work consists (a) of six introductory leaves, the first of which is blank, while the others contain five pages printed with movable type, and (<5) of fifty-eight leaves with pictures, every one of which contains a woodcut divided into two subjects. The two pairs of woodcuts shown on two opposite leaves form a complete whole, one of the four illustrations being always a New Testament subject, the other three Old Testament. The letterpress beneath the woodcuts is a mixture of block printing and printing from movable type, twenty pages being printed in the former, thirty-eight in the latter way.
The woodcuts, printed, like those of the Biblia Pauperum, by rubbing the back of the paper when laid on the surface of the inked block, are the work of an excellent Netherlandish artist, but not of very early date. The Grenville copy of this edition in the British Museum (one of eleven described by Schreiber) is dated ' not after 1474' in the official catalogue. In 1483 Jan Veldener at Culenburch printed a new edition with the same blocks cut up and increased by the addition of twelve subjects (Proctor 9157).
The watermarks of this copy are a small bull's head, an anchor, and two different forms of the Gothic ' p '.
3. APOCALYPSIS SANCTI JOHANNIS.
A complete copy, in forty-eight leaves, coloured by hand, of the fourth edition as distinguished by W. L. Schreiber ; it is the first of his second group of Apocalypse block books, those of German origin, the first group having been produced in the Netherlands ; he attributes both to a common origin in some MS. prototype, though the treatment of details varies much between the first and second groups. One of the nineteen copies of this edition recorded by Schreiber, the Spencer copy, now in the John Rylands Library, is in a binding dated 1467. The British Museum copy of the same edition is intercalated with a German MS. text.
34 Block Books
There are two ' states ' of this edition. The horse in the upper half of the seventh page ought to be black, and is rightly so coloured, but the text on a scroll in the first three editions of the block book reads ' Equus pallidus ypocrisis est ', being founded apparently on a MS. in which the horse was wrongly coloured white. After the first three editions the erroneous text was removed ; in some copies of the fourth only the word ' pallidus ' was omitted, and the text runs ' Equus — ypocrisis est ' ; in the remainder of the edition, as in this copy, the text was removed entirely from the scroll.
The order of the subjects had been very arbitrary in the first three editions, but'in the fourth it corresponds pretty closely to the text of the Bible. The first and the last pair of pages illustrate scenes from the legend of St. John.
The watermark is a Gothic ' p ' surmounted by a flower.
ARS MEMORANDI PER FIGURAS EVANGEL1STARUM.
A coloured copy of the third of the three editions distinguished by W. L. Schreiber. All editions are of South German origin, and date from about 1470. Schreiber mentions, in all, twenty-two copies, eight of which, including that in the John Rylands Library, Manchester, are of the third edition. The Holford copy was formerly the property of Bishop Butler.
The Ars Memorandi is a book to aid theologians in remembering the order and contents of the chapters of the Gospels. It consists of fifteen pages of text and as many pictures. In the centre of each picture is the winged emblem of the Evangelist, three pictures being devoted to St. John (placed first), five to St. Matthew, three to St. Mark, and four to St. Luke. Round the winged figure are grouped pictorial emblems of the events recorded : a lute recalls the Marriage at Cana, a fish the Pool of Bethesda, two fishes and five loaves the miracle recorded in St. John, ch. vi, and so forth.
The blank backs of the leaves in this copy have been pasted together. The watermark of the first leaf is a bull's head with stem and cross, and that of the last leaf a Catherine wheel.
35
BOOKS WITH WOODCUTS AND COPPER ENGRAVINGS
1. BOCCACCIO, PHILOCOLO, printed by Sixtus Russinger (' Todisco ').
Naples, 1478.
A fine example of an exceptionally scarce book, containing about forty woodcuts, individual in character but not closely allied to current Italian art.
2. LORENZO DE' MEDICI, Canzone a Ballo, written by II Magnifico,
Poliziano, and others. Florence, 1568.
The frontispiece represents Lorenzo receiving a complimentary offering, while in the background a chorus of maidens sing a canzone. This is one of the finest of the Florentine secular woodcuts of the Quattrocento.
3. AESOP'S LIFE AND FABLES, printed at Naples for Francesco
Tuppo in 1485. Proctor 6724.
Notable for its woodcuts, in which various writers have detected the influence of Spain, Sicily, Strassburg, and of Saracenic art. The colo- phon states that the book was printed for Tuppo, and there is good ground for thinking that the actual printers were the ' German! fidel- issimi ' whom Mr. Pollard believes to have been Dutchmen. The influence of these striking illustrations was small.
4. DANTE, THE DIVINE COMEDY, WITH LANDING'S COM-
MENTARY, Niccolo di Lorenzo, Florence, 1481. Proctor 6120.
The book is relatively common and seldom contains more than two copper plates. This copy has no less than nineteen, while numerous blank spaces in the text show that after realizing the impracticability of printing the plates in conjunction with the text, the printers were dissatisfied with the subsequent method of pasting in the engravings, and ultimately abandoned further efforts to complete the series of plates. Botticelli is traditionally credited with the designs, Baccio Baldini with their execution. In any case the pictures are true to the Florentine style of the day.
E 2
36
THE GENERALL HISTORIE OF VIRGINIA, NEW-ENGLAND & THE SUMMER ISLES, by Captaine JOHN SMITH Some- times Governour in thofe Countries and Admirall of New England . . . London. Printed by I. D. & I. H. for Michael Sparkes. 1624.
This is the Copy presented to the Cordwainers' Company by John Smith. On the folio opposite the title-page 'graven by John Burra and containing the portraits of ELIZABETHA REGINA, JACOBVS REX and CAROLVS PRINCEPS is his manuscript epistle, as follows : —
To the Worsh^pf^lll the Master Wardens of the Societie of the Cordwayners of ye Cittie of London.
Worthie Gentlemen
Not only in regard of your Courtisie & Love, Butt also of ye Continual! ufe I have had of yot(.r Labours, & the hope you may make fame ufe of mine I salute yo" with this Cronologicall discourse, whereof you may understand with what infinite Difficulties & Dangers these Plantations first began, -with ther yearlie proceedings, &f the plaine description & condition of those Countries. Hcnv many of your Companie have bin Adventurers, whose Names are omitted or not nominated in the Alphabett I know not, therefore I intreate you better to informe me, that I may hereafter imprint yo" amongst the Rest, Butt of this I am Sure for want of shooes among the Oyster Bankes wee tore our Hatts & Clothes & those being worne, wee tied Barkes of trees about our Ffeete to keepe them from Being Cutt by the Shettes amongst which we must goe or starve, Yett how many thousand of shooes hath bin transported to these plantations, how many Soldiers Marriners & Saylors have bin &• are likely to be encreased thereby, what vent your Comodities have had & still have, & how many shipps & men of all ff acuities have bin & are yearelie imployed I leave to you* owne Judgments, & yett by reason ill manadging, the Returnes have neither anjwered the generall Expectation, nor my desire ; the Causes thereof yo" may reade at large in this Booke for your better satisfaction, & I pray yo" take it not in ill part that I present the same to yo" in this Manuscript Epistle soe Late, for both it & I myself have bin soe overtired by attendances that this Work of mine doth seeme to be superannuated11- before it's Birth, notwithstanding Lett me intreat yo" to give it Lodging in your Hall freelie to be perused for ever, in memorie of your Noblenesse towards mee, & my Love to God, my Cottntrie, your Societie, & those plantations, Ever resting
Your's to ufe
John Smith.
* The printer's date, 1624, on the frontispiece is altered in ink to 1626.
37
DECORATIVE WOODWORK
1. CASSONE. Italian, latter half of the sixteenth century. Carved in
high relief, in walnut.
In the centre a scutcheon with a crest, on gold ground, a vine with leaves and grapes twined up the trunk of a tree, surmounted by a horned mask and supported by two boys. On the left of the scutcheon, the figure of Amphitrite being carried by a sea monster with the head of a bull, and the tail of a whale, and another sea monster with the beak of an eagle following. On the right, Neptune riding on a sea monster with an elephant's head and drawing a mermaiden up to him. Terminal female figures with wings at the corners. At both ends, boys riding sea monsters, one with the beak of a bird of prey, and the other with the head of a tiger. Slight traces of gilding to the ornament of the lid. Size, 66 x 2 1 in.
2. CASSONE. Italian, latter half of the sixteenth century. Carved in
high relief, in walnut.
In the centre a scutcheon bearing arms of three stars, with an amorino above and two supporters. On the left of the scutcheon apple gatherers ; and on the right an old man seated tending a flaming brazier with sticks which boys are bringing. Winged sea monsters at both ends, and winged terminal figures at the corners. Size, 73 x 23 in.
3. CASSONE. Italian. The front panel of intarsia work is of the first half
of the sixteenth century and depicts a seaport with buildings, a mole, and harbour. The top of the highest building and its tower is cut by the framing of the panel. The decoration of the body of the cassone is picked out with gold, and is of later date than the panel. Size, 76 x 28 in.
4. A CHIPPENDALE SOFA AND THREE CHAIRS.
The fine curves of the seat-framing which continue down the cabriole legs are in his later French manner, about 1770.
5. ARMOIRE A DEUX CORPS.
In walnut, the workmanship perhaps from the Ile-de-France. Conventional decoration of stems and foliage on all four panels of the doors ; terminal figures and ornaments on the pilasters.
38 Decorative Woodwork
6. ARMOIRE A DEUX CORPS. In walnut, bleached. Period of Henri II.
The two panels on the doors of the upper half depict tall and slender figures of goddesses, nude, in low relief. On the left, Venus holding an arrow in her right hand, and a burning heart in her left, with Cupid at her feet. On the right, Juno with her peacock. In the panels of the doors of the lower half of the armoire Minerva stands nude on the left, with helmet and plume, shield, and spear; and Diana on the right, a stag by her side, her bow in the left hand, takes an arrow from its quiver. Decoration in both high and low relief of \hefinefteur of the Renaissance. Lyons work.
Height 70 in. ; Width of upper body 32^- in. ; Base 40^ in.
Though bearing no monogram of a royal H interlaced with two crescents, this meuble summons memories and exhales the atmosphere of a choir of goddesses star-scattered in the paintings and bas-reliefs of the French Renaissance. Of such are the two 'Dianes de Jean Goujon ', one leaning against a master-stag — her enchanted Prince ; the other watching amorously the approach of the noble beast who murmurs : Sweet lady, ' make me immortal with a kiss'. Of such are the Divinite's Chasseresses of Primaticcio and his school. Of such is Diane de Poitiers who inspired them all. Historians preach in vain that this young goddess was an old woman, rapacious, and nearly fifty even at the dawn of her reign. No one believes it ; no one wants to believe it. She is one of the world's enchantresses. Posterity sees her through the spell-bound eyes of Henri II who loved her, and her alone, all his life. Once only this unlettered King broke into poetry to acknowledge her power and articulate his passion. The following is the beginning and end of his double sonnet :
Plus ferme foy ne fut onques juree A nouveau prince, 6 ma seule princesse, Que mon amour, qui vous sera sans cesse Centre le temps et la mort asseuree.
Helas, mon Dyeu, combyen j'ai regrete Le temps que j'ai perdu en ma jeunesse! Combien de foys je me suys souete Avoyr Dyane pour ma seule maytresse, Mais je creynoys qu'elle, quy est deesse,
Decorative Woodwork 39
Ne se voulut abesser jusque la De fayre cas de moi qui sans cela N'avoys playsir, joie, ni contentement, Jusques a 1'heure que se delybera, Que j'obeisse & son commandemant.*
CERAMICS
A PAIR OF MANDARIN JARS, Chinese, eighteenth century.
Decoration of peonies, phoenixes, rouge de fer, and gold band round the shoulder, &c.
Height from base to rim of jar . . . . . . 49 in.
„ „ „ to top of gilt kylin that stands on the cover . 58 in. Diameter of top of jar . . . . . . . . 1 1 in.
ITALIAN MAIOLICA
The Committee desire to express the thanks of the Club to Mr. Bernard Rackham for selecting and arranging these pieces, and for contributing the following notes.
The maiolica in the exhibition, acquired for the most part at the sale of the Bernal collection (1855), consists in the main of specimens of the istoriato class which was in favour at the time when the collection was formed. The neglect of this type during the subsequent period of appreciation of the earlier and stronger school of maiolica painting may be said to be giving place to a more balanced judgement of the undeniable chromatic excellences to be found in the products of the Urbino kilns. The most interesting piece in the exhibition is perhaps the lustred dish with portraits, and the Orsini escutcheon which still challenges identification ; another piece to be noted is a dish belonging to the later period of the great master of maiolica paint- ing, Nicola Pellipario. Attention may also be drawn to a fine piece of the decorative ware of Faenza, and several Deruta lustred dishes.
On top of Case.
1. DISH of scannellato form. Faenza, about 1540.
2. DISH, lustred, with arms of the Orsini. Deruta, early i6th century.
3. DISH of scannellato form. Faenza, second half of 1 6th century. A late
example of the type.
* See ' Hommes el Dieux ', Paul de St. Vic/or s. v. Diane de Poitiers.
40 Italian Maiolica
Top SMf.
1. DISH. A boar-hunt scene after an engraving by Antonio Tempesta.
Border of grotesques. Urbino, about 1600. This may perhaps be ascribed to Alfonso Patanazzi.
2. BREAD-PLATTER from an accouchement scene. On one side, Joseph
and Potiphar's wife ; on the other, Cupid. Urbino, workshop of Orazio Fontana. About 1560-1570.
3. DISH. The Roman populace entertained with a feast; border of
grotesques. Inscribed ' AL POPOLO ROMANO LARGO CONVITO*. Urbino, probably by Orazio Fontana. About 1560-1570.
<k
4 DISH. Christ appearing to the Magdalene in the guise of a gardener ; also a shield (or a dolphin lauriant azure) with the initials I A. Urbino (?) ; second half of i6th century.
5. DISH. The games in the Circus Maximus. Border of grotesques. Urbino, workshop of Orazio Fontana, about 1560-1570.
Second Skelf.
1. DISH, with portrait inscribed MARGARITA, lustred. Deruta, about 1530.
2. DISH. The Trojan Horse. Inscribed
Come fit menato il cavallo di legno in troia.
Urbino, probably by Orazio Fontana, about 1560.
3. PLATE. Faenza, early i6th century.
4. DISH, with portraits of a betrothed couple and the arms of Orsini three
times repeated. The names ' LORE ' and ' CESERA ' and the legend ' FIDES ONIA ' (omnia) are appended to the portraits. Deruta, about 1510. The identity of the personages is uncertain. The only Lorenzo Orsini named by Litta married Clarice Orsini ; their eldest son was already grown up in 1473. The possibility to which the repetition of the Orsini coat and the absence of another lends colour — that these are the persons commemoratively depicted — must be regarded as remote.
Italian Maiolica . 41
5. PLATE. A putto, or amorino, carrying a ball. Castel Durante, about
1525-
It is to be noted that the ball takes the form of the ' piruota ', fire- ball or grenade, which was the mark of the Casa Pirota factory at Faenza. Other instances of its introduction in the decoration of maiolica from other sources are provided by the celebrated dish of 1508, with the signature of Zona maria of Castel Durante, till recently in the possession of the Duke of Newcastle, and on a plate in the Wallace collection with the signature of Maestro Giorgio of Gubbio and date 1528.
6. PLATE. The story of Cain and Abel (the Sacrifice and the Murder of
Abel). Urbino, by Francesco Xanto, about 1540. Unsigned.
7. DISH, with an unidentified mythological subject. Urbino, by Nicola
da Urbino (Pellipario), about 1530. Unsigned.
This dish is similar in style to those with the signature of Nicola in the Bargello, Florence (1528), and the British Museum (undated). It belongs to the period of the painter's decline.
Bottom Shelf.
1. DISH, with portrait and inscription CHI BE GVIDA • SVA • BACA • ESEPRE • i
PORTO. Deruta, about 1520.
2. DISH. Moses striking the rock. Urbino, probably by Orazio Fontana.
About 1550.
3. PLATE from a service made for Guidobaldo II, duke of Urbino, with
scenes from the Punic Wars ; Hannibal crossing the Ebro, inscribed
Annibale passato il fiume Ibero
Piu terre acquista a 1'Africano jmpero. Urbino, Fontana factory, about 1550.
4. DISH. Apollo and Marsyas. Inscribed De Apollo et Marsia. Urbino,
workshop of Orazio Fontana, about 1550.
5. DISH. Portrait of the Corsair Barbarossa. Inscribed NO • CIE • PIV • FEDE •
NECHARITA • NE(A)MORE. Deruta, about 1530.
The bearded head has been somewhat naively fitted on to a bust of stereotype design for a portrait of a lady.
Upstairs.
DISH. St. Francis receiving the stigmata. Deruta, about 1530. DISH. St. Jerome. Deruta, about 1530.
42
CHELSEA
The Commit lee are indebted to Mr. R. L. Hobsonfor the following note.
A PAIR OF VASES. Ovoid bodies, wide necks, and flaring mouths; each with two scroll-shaped lugs ; small stems and spreading feet ; mottled dark-blue ground ; two large panels with gilt rococo frames. Subjects of the panels :
(1) Music lesson, a pastoral scene after Boucher ; in the background an ancient fountain with a formal inscription partly legible.
(2) Two lovers in a cornfield surprised by a reaper, after Boucher. On the reverse of each vase, exotic birds in landscape. The panels
are evidently by the same hand as those on the Gamier vases painted in 1752 and given to the British Museum in 1753, the painter of which was John Donaldson. Mark, a gold^anchor.
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