OTHER BENEFACTORS OF RECENT DAYS.—CREATION OF THE NEW DEPARTMENT OF
BRITISH AND MEDIÆVAL ANTIQUITIES AND ETHNOGRAPHY.
‘Amidst tablets and stones, inscribed with the straight and angular
characters of the Runic alphabet, and similar articles which the
vulgar might have connected with the exercise of the forbidden
arts, ... were disposed, in great order, several of those curious
stone axes, formed of green granite, which are often found in these
Islands.... There were, moreover, to be seen amid the strange
collection stone sacrificial knives ... and the brazen implements
called Celts, the purpose of which has troubled the repose of so many
antiquaries.’—_The Pirate_, c. xxviii.
‘A Museum of Antiquities—not of one People or period only, but of all
races and all times—exhibits a vast comparative scheme of the material
productions of man. We are thus enabled to follow the progress of the
Fine and Useful Arts, contemporaneously through a long period of time,
tracing their several lines backwards till they converge at one
vanishing point of the unknown Past.’—
C. T. NEWTON (_Letter to Col. Mure_, 1853).
_Scantiness of the Notices of some Contributors to the Natural-History
Collections, and its cause.—The Duke of_ BLACAS _and his Museum of
Greek and Roman Antiquities.—Hugh_ CUMING _and his Travels and
Collections in South America.—John_ RUTTER CHORLEY, _and his
Collection of Spanish Plays and Spanish Poetry.—George_ WITT _and
his Collections illustrative of the History of Obscure
Superstitions.—The Ethnographical Museum of Henry_ CHRISTY, _and
its History.—Colonial Archæologists and British Consuls: The
History of the_ WOODHOUSE _Collection, and of its transmittal to
the British Museum.—Lord_ NAPIER _and the acquisition of the
Abyssinian MSS. added in 1868.—The Travels of_ VON SIEBOLD _in
Japan, and the gathering of his Japanese Library.—Felix_ SLADE
_and his Bequests, Artistic and Archæological_.
No reader of this volume will, in the course of its perusal, have become
more sensible than is its author of a want of due _proportion_, in those
notices which have occasionally been given of some eminent naturalists
who have conspicuously contributed to the public collections, as
compared with the notices of those many archæologists and book-gatherers
who, in common with the naturalists, have been fellow-workers towards
the building up of our National Museum. [Sidenote: THE INADEQUACY OF THE
NOTICES OF NATURALISTS IN THIS VOLUME, AND ITS CAUSE.] I feel, too, that
my own ignorance of natural history is no excuse at all for so imperfect
a filling-out of the plan which the title-page itself of this volume
implies. I feel this all the more strongly, because I dissent entirely
from those views which tend to depreciate the importance of the
scientific collections, in order (very superfluously) to enhance that of
the literary and artistic collections. Far from looking at the splendid
Galleries of mammals, or of birds, or of plants, as mere collections of
‘book-plates,’ gathered for the ‘illustration’ of the National Library,
or from sharing the opinion that the books and the antiquities, alone,
are ‘what may be called the permanent departments of the British Museum’
(to quote, literally, the words of a publication[45] issued whilst this
sheet is going to press, words which seem somewhat rashly—considering
whence they come—to prejudge a question of national scope, and one which
it assuredly belongs alone _to Parliament_ to settle), I regard these
scientific collections as possessing, in common with the others, the
highest educational value, and as also possessing, even a little beyond
some of the others, a special claim, it may be, upon the respect of
Englishmen.
That speciality of claim seems to me to accrue from the fact, that two
of the early FOUNDERS, and one of the most conspicuous subsequent
BENEFACTORS of the Museum, were pre-eminently Naturalists. Such was
COURTEN. Such was SLOANE. Such was Sir Joseph BANKS. I shall have erred
greatly in my estimate of the regard habitually paid by a British
Parliament to the memory of the eminent benefactors of Britain, if, in
the issue, it do not become apparent that such a consideration as this
will weigh heavily with those who will shortly—and after due
deliberation and debate—have to decide pending questions in relation to
the enlargement and to the still further improvement of the British
Museum.
Be that however as it ultimately shall prove to be, if the Public should
honour this volume with a favourable reception, it will be its author’s
endeavour (in a second edition) to supplement, by the knowledge and
co-operation of others, the ignorance and the deficiencies of which he
is very conscious in himself.
[Sidenote: THE FORMATION OF THE NEW DEPARTMENT OF BRITISH AND MEDIÆVAL
ANTIQUITIES.]
In resuming the notices connected with the now truly magnificent
Collection of Antiquities, we have to glance at the organizing of a new
‘Department’ in the Museum. During at least two generations it has been,
from time to time, remarked—with some surprise as well as censure—that
the ‘British’ Museum contained no ‘British’ Antiquities. Sometimes this
criticism has been put much too strongly, as when, for example, one of
the recent biographers of WEDGWOOD thus wrote (in 1866, but referring
also to a period then ninety years distant). ‘At that date, _as at
present_, everything native to the soil, or produced by the races who
had lived and died upon it, was repudiated by those who were the rulers
of the National Collection.’ [Sidenote: Meteyard, _Life of Josiah
Wedgwood_, vol. ii, p. 162.] At that time, assuredly, there were already
in the Museum a good many British beasts, British birds, and British
books;—no inconsiderable part of the ‘productions’ of our soil and of
the races born and nurtured upon it.
But, within a few months after the appearance of the criticism I have
quoted, all ground for its repetition was removed by the formation of
the ‘Department of British and Mediæval Antiquities and Ethnography.’ It
is thus organized, in six separate sections:—
§ I. British Antiquities anterior to the Roman period.
II. Roman Antiquities found in Britain.
III. Anglo-Saxon Antiquities.
IV. Mediæval sculpture, carving, paintings, metal work, enamels,
pottery, glass, stone ware; and implements of various
kinds, and of various material.
V. Costumes, weapons, accoutrements, tools, furniture,
industrial productions, &c.—both ancient and modern—of
non-European races.
VI. Pre-historic Antiquities.[46]
To the enrichment of the fourth section of this new department of the
Museum (in a small degree), as well as (much more largely) to that of
the Classical Collections, the choice treasures gathered in France
during two generations by successive Dukes of BLACAS largely
contributed.
[Sidenote: THE BLACAS MUSEUM AND ITS FOUNDERS, 1815–1860.]
The first of these Dukes, Peter Lewis John Casimir de BLACAS, was born
at Aulps in the year 1770. He was of a family which has been conspicuous
in Provence from the beginning of the Crusades. Attaining manhood just
at the eve of the Revolution, the Duke followed the French princes into
exile, and warmly attached himself to LEWIS THE EIGHTEENTH, to whom, in
after years, he became the minister of predilection, as distinguished
from that monarch’s many ministers of constraint. He had, in his own
day, the reputation of being a courtier; but seems to have been, in
truth, an honest, frank, and outspeaking adviser. One saying of his
depicts quite plainly the nature of the man, and also the nature of the
work he had to do:—“If you want to defend your Crown, you musn’t run
away from your Kingdom.” Those words were spoken in 1815; and, as we all
know, were spoken in vain.
A statesman of that stamp—one who does _not_ watch and chronicle the
shiftings of popular opinion, in order to know with certainty what are
his own opinions, or in order to shape his own political
‘principles’—rarely enjoys popularity. DE BLACAS became so little
popular at home, that the King was forced to send him, for many years,
abroad. At Rome, he negotiated the Concordat (1817–19); at Naples, he
advised an amnesty (1822), together with other measures, some of which
were too wise for the latitude. In the interval between his two
residences at the Court of Naples, he took part in the Congress of
Laybach.
[Sidenote: FORMATION OF THE BLACAS MUSEUM.]
The opportunities afforded by diplomacy in Italy and in other countries
were turned to intellectual and archæological, as well as to political,
account. He imitated the example of HAMILTON and of ELGIN, and that of a
crowd of his own countrymen, long anterior to either. Since his son’s
death, the British Museum has, by purchase, entered into his
archæological labours almost as largely—in their way and measure—as it
has inherited the treasures of its own enlightened ambassadors at Naples
and at Constantinople.
The Duke died at Goeritz in 1839. Nine years earlier, he had advised
CHARLES X against the measures which precipitated that king into ruin;
and when the obstinate monarch had to pay the sure penalty of neglecting
good advice, the giver of it voluntarily took his share of the
infliction. He offered to attend CHARLES into exile in 1830, as he had
attended him forty years before, when in the flush of youth. He lies
buried at the King’s feet, in the Church of the Franciscans at Goeritz—
‘He that can endure
To follow, in exile, his fallen Lord,
Doth conquer them that did his master conquer,
And earns his place i’ the story.’
[Sidenote: CHARACTER OF THE BLACAS COLLECTION.]
The late Duke of BLACAS augmented his father’s collections by many
purchases of great extent and value. His special predilection was for
coins and gems. In that department the combined museum of father and son
soon came to rank as the finest known collection, belonging to an
individual possessor. It includes seven hundred and forty-eight ancient
and classical cameos and intaglios, and two hundred and three others
which are either mediæval, oriental, or modern. The most precious
portion of the STROZZI cabinet passed into it, as did also a choice part
of the collections, respectively, of BARTH and of DE LA TURBIE. The
Blacas Museum is also eminently rich in vases and paintings of various
kinds; in sculptures, on every variety of material; in terracottas, and
in ancient glass. Its ‘silver toilet service’ of a Christian Roman lady
of the fifth century, named PROJECTA, has been made famous throughout
Europe by the descriptive accounts which have appeared from the pen of
VISCONTI and from that of LABARTE. The casket is richly chased with
figure-subjects. Among them are seen figures of Venus and Cupid; of the
lady herself and of her bridegroom, SECUNDUS. Roman bridesmaids, of
indubitable flesh and blood, are mingled with the more unsubstantial
forms of Nereids, riding upon Tritons.
[Sidenote: HUGH CUMING; HIS TRAVELS AND HIS COLLECTIONS, IN AMERICA AND
ELSEWHERE, 1791.]
Of the men devoted, in our own day, to the enchaining pursuits of
Natural History, few better deserve a competent biographer than does
Hugh CUMING, whose career, in its relation to the Museum history, has an
additional interest for us from the circumstance that his course in life
was partly shaped by his having attracted, in childhood, the notice of
another worthy naturalist and public benefactor, [Sidenote: See page
376.] Colonel George MONTAGU, of Lackham.
Young CUMING’S childish fondness for picking up shells and gathering
plants attracted Colonel MONTAGU’S notice about the time that the boy
was apprenticed to a sailmaker, living not far from the boy’s native
village, West Alvington, in Devon. The elder naturalist fostered the
nascent passion of his young and humble imitator, and the trade of
sailmaking brought CUMING, whilst still a boy, into contact with
sailors. The benevolent and Nature-loving Colonel told the youngster
some of the fairy tales of science; the tars spun yarns for him about
the marvels of foreign parts. A few, and very few, years of work at his
trade at home were followed by a voyage to South America. At Valparaiso
he resumed his handicraft, but only as a step (by aid of frugality and
foresight) towards saving enough of money to enable him to devote his
whole being to conchology and to botany. Seven years of work under this
inspiring ambition, seem to have enabled the man of five-and-thirty to
retire from business, and to build himself a yacht. But his was to be no
lounging yachtman’s life; it was rather to resemble the life of an A.B.
before the mast. The year 1827 was spent in toiling and dredging, to
good purpose, amongst the islands of the South Pacific. When he returned
to Valparaiso, the retired sailmaker found that he had won fame, as well
as many precious rarities in conchology and botany. The Chilian
Government gave him special privileges and useful credentials. He then
devoted two years to the thorough exploration of the coasts extending
from Chiloë to the Gulf of Conchagua. [Sidenote: _Athenæum_ of 1865;
_Returns presented to Parliament_, v. y.] He botanized in plains,
marshes and woods; he turned over shingle, and explored the crannies of
the cliffs, with the patient endurance of a Californian gold-digger, and
was much happier in his companions. In 1831, he returned to England,
with a modest but assured livelihood, and with inexhaustible treasures
in shells and plants, of which multitudes were theretofore unseen and
unknown in Europe.
The year 1831 was a happy epoch for a conchologist. The Zoological
Society had just gained a firm footing. BRODERIP and SOWERBY were ready
to exhibit and to describe the rich shells of the Pacific. Richard OWEN
was eager to anatomize the molluscs, and to write their biography. Some
of the novelties brought over by CUMING in 1831 were still yielding new
information thirty years afterwards; probably are yielding it still.
In 1835, Mr. CUMING returned to America. He devoted four years to an
exhaustive survey of the natural history—more especially, but far from
exclusively, the conchology and the botany—of the Philippine group of
islands, of Malacca, Singapore, and St. Helena.
CUMING was fitted for his work not more by his scientific ardour and his
patient toil-bearing, than by his amiable character. He loved children.
His manner was so attractive to them that in some places to which he
travelled a schoolful of children were extemporised into botanic
missionaries. The joyous band would turn out for a holiday, and would
spend the whole of it in searching for the plants, the shells, and the
insects, with the general forms and appearances of which the promoter
and rewarder of their voluntary labours had previously familiarised
them. He returned to England with such a collection of shells as no
previous investigator had brought home; and with about one hundred and
thirty thousand specimens of dried plants, besides many curious
specimens in other departments.
[Sidenote: R. Owen, _On a National Museum of Natural History_, pp. 53,
seqq.]
His collections had been a London marvel before he set out on his third
voyage of discovery. He then possessed, I believe, almost sixteen
thousand _species_, and they were regarded as a near approximation to a
perfect collection, according to the knowledge of the time. [Sidenote:
Comp. _Athenæum_ as above, and the Museum returns of 1865 and subsequent
years.] If the writer of the able notice of him which the _Athenæum_
published immediately after his death was rightly informed, CUMING
nearly doubled that number by the results of his final voyage, and by
those of subsequent purchases made in Europe.
Very naturally, strenuous efforts were made to ensure the perpetuity of
this noble collection during its owner’s lifetime. The history of those
efforts still deserves to be told, and for more than one reason. But it
cannot be told here. This inadequate notice of a most estimable man must
close with the few words which, three years ago, closed Professor OWEN’S
annual _Report on the Progress of the Zoological Portion of the British
Museum_. ‘The discoveries and labours of Mr. Hugh CUMING,’ he then
wrote, ‘do honour to his country; the fruition of them by Naturalists of
all countries now depends mainly _on the acquisition of the space
required for the due arrangement, exhibition—facility of access and
comparison—of the rarities which the Nation has acquired_.’ And then he
adds a small individual instance, as a passing illustration of the value
of Mr. CUMING’S life-long pursuit—‘Among the choicer rarities, ...
brought from the Philippines in 1840, was a specimen of siliceous sponge
(described and figured in the _Transactions of the Zoological Society_),
known as _Euplectella Aspergillum_.’ Up to the date of Mr. CUMING’S
death (tenth August, 1865), this specimen—of what, for non-zoological
readers, may be likened to a sort of coral of rare beauty—brought over
in 1840, was unique. [Sidenote: _Transactions_, &c., vol. iii, p. 203.]
In the year next after the discoverer’s death, _many_ fine and curious
specimens were sent from the Philippines. The solitary explorer of 1839
had at length been followed by a school of explorers. Such men as CUMING
live after their death, and hence the marvellous increase, within a very
few years, in our knowledge of Nature, and of GOD’S bounty to the world
he made.
[Sidenote: J. R. CHORLEY AND HIS COLLECTION OF THE SPANISH POETS AND
DRAMATISTS.]
By a man who did but little in literature, although he possessed
attainments which, in some respects, seem to have surpassed those of a
good many men whose lucubrations have had much publicity and vogue, a
valuable addition was made a few years ago, by bequest, to the Museum
Library, both in the printed and manuscript departments. [Sidenote:
_Will of Mr. Rutter Chorley_, 1866.] Mr. John Rutter CHORLEY had
collected about two hundred volumes of the Spanish poetry and drama, and
had enriched them with manuscript notes, bibliographical and critical.
He had also prepared chronological tables of the dramatists—writing them
in Spanish, of which he was a master—together with an account of their
respective works. He had, I think, contemplated, at some future time,
the preparation of some such book on the Spanish theatre as that
published by Mr. TICKNOR, many years ago, on Spanish literature at
large. Whether the appearance of TICKNOR’S valuable book deterred Mr.
CHORLEY from prosecuting his purpose, I know not. Probably he was one of
the many men the very extent of whose knowledge inspires a
fastidiousness which prompts them to keep on increasing their private
store, and to defer, almost until death overtakes them, the drawing from
that store for the Public. If there may really, by some dim possibility,
have been here and there an inglorious HAMPDEN, or a mute SHAKESPEARE,
it is very certain that there have been, in literary history and in like
departments of human study, many an unknown DISRAELI, many a Tom WARTON,
brimful of knowledge about poets and poetry, who never could have lived
long enough to put to public use the materials he had laboriously
brought together.
[Sidenote: GEORGE WITT AND HIS COLLECTIONS ILLUSTRATIVE OF THE HISTORY
OF SUPERSTITIONS.]
Of another Collector, whose pursuits lay at an opposite pole to those of
Mr. CHORLEY, it would not be edifying to say very much in these pages.
Some among the collections illustrative of the history of obscure
superstitions (to quote the polite euphuism of one of the Museum
_Returns_ to Parliament) partake, in a degree, of the peculiar
associations which connect themselves with the bare name of a place at
which some few of them were really found—that too famous retreat of the
Emperor TIBERIUS. Others of them, however, possess a real archæological
value from a different point of view. All, no doubt, are
characteristically illustrative, more or less, of the doings ‘in the
dark places of the earth,’ and may point a moral, howsoever little
fitted to adorn a tale.
Mr. George WITT, F.R.S., the collector of these curiosities of human
error, was a surgeon who had lived much in Australia, and who, on his
return from the Colonies, had retired to a provincial town in England,
where, at first, he amused his leisure by gathering a small museum of
natural history. Of that collection I remember to have seen a printed
catalogue, but I imagine that he sold it in his lifetime, as no part of
his objects of natural history came, with his other and much more
eccentric museum, to the augmentation of the public stores. Towards the
close of his life he lived in London, and used to amuse himself by
exhibiting, and by lecturing upon, what he regarded as the more racy
portion of his later collections. He chose (I am told) the hour of
eleven o’clock on Sunday morning for such peculiar expositions, but I do
not think that _these_ ‘Sunday Lectures’ were regarded, either by the
man who gave them or by his auditors, as especially fitted for ‘the
instruction of the working classes.’
[Sidenote: THE CHRISTY MUSEUM AND ITS FOUNDER’S HISTORY.]
Of a very different calibre to Mr. George WITT was the donor of the
noble Museum of Ethnography which, _for want of room at Bloomsbury_,
still occupies the late donor’s dwelling-house, almost two miles off. It
is not too much to say of Henry CHRISTY, that he was both an illustrious
man of science and an eminent Christian. The man whose fame as a
searcher into antiquity is spread alike over Europe and America, is also
remembered in many Irish cabins as one who was willing to spend,
lavishly, his health and strength, as well as his money, in lifting up,
from squalid beds of straw and filth, poor creatures stricken at once
with famine and with fever, and so stricken as sometimes to have almost
lost the semblance of humanity. He is also remembered by Algerian
peasants, by West African negroes, and by Canadian Indians for like
deeds of beneficence. When Prussian insolence and Prussian barbarity
struck down Danes who were defending hearth and home, CHRISTY was again
the open-handed benefactor of the oppressed. When Turks were, in like
manner, beating down by sheer brute force the Druses of Syria, Henry
CHRISTY was relieving the distressed and the down-trodden in the East,
with no less liberality than he had evinced a little while before in
relieving them in the North of Europe.
The time which works of good-samaritanism such as these left unoccupied
was given to a vast series—or rather to a succession of series—of
explorations which have had already a noble result, and which will yield
more and more fruit for many a year to come. The scene of them embraced
Mexico, the United States, British America, Denmark, and several
Departments of Southern and Western France. Their period reached from
1860—when he had just entered the fiftieth year of his age—almost to the
day of his lamented and sudden death in the May of 1865. His able and
beloved friend and fellow-worker LARTET was with him in the Allier, when
the fatal illness struck him, at the age of fifty-four. It will be
pardoned me, I trust, if in this connection I quote, once again, those
thoughtful words, out of the private note-book of Lord BACON, which I
applied in a former chapter to another and more recent public
loss—‘Princes, ... when men deserve crowns for their performances, do
not crown them below, where the deeds are performed, but call them up.
So doth GOD, by death.’
[Sidenote: CHARACTER OF THE CHRISTY MUSEUM.]
The little that need here be added as to the nature and extent of Mr.
CHRISTY’S gift to the Public, will be best said in the words of the
present able Curator of the Collection, Mr. A. W. FRANKS. But it should
be first premised that the posthumous gift was only the continuation of
a long series of gifts, which embraced the Museums, not of England
alone, but those of Northern and of Southern Europe, and (as I think)
some of those of America:—
[Sidenote: ANCIENT EUROPE AND PART OF NORTH AMERICA.]
Among the most important contents of the CHRISTY Museum is a collection
of stone implements from the Drift. They are the most ancient remains of
human industry hitherto discovered; they include a remarkably fine
series from St. Acheul, near Amiens. Antiquities found in the Caves of
Dordogne, were excavated by Mr. CHRISTY and M. LARTET, at the expense of
the former. This collection is very extensive, and includes a number of
drawings on reindeer bone and horn, probably some of the most ancient
works of art that have been preserved. [Sidenote: Franks’ _Report on
Christy Museum_ (abridged).] It would have been still more extensive,
had it not been known that Mr. CHRISTY intended to present the unique
specimens to the French Museum, an intention which the Trustees under
his Will have felt bound to fulfil. The Museum includes many ancient
stone implements found on the surface, in England and Ireland, France,
Belgium, and Denmark. The last of these is a remarkable collection, and
includes a good series from the Danish Kitchenmiddens. A few specimens
from Italy are also to be found; a valuable collection from the caves at
Gibraltar; and specimens from the Swiss Lakes. For convenience, a case
of ancient stone implements from Asia has been placed in this room, as
well as the more modern implements, dresses, and weapons of the
Esquimaux of America and Asia, and of the maritime tribes of the
North-West Coast of America. These furnish striking illustrations of the
remains found in the Caves of Dordogne, and prove that, while the
climate was similar to that of the northern countries in question, the
inhabitants of that part of France must have resembled the Esquimaux in
their habits and implements.
[Sidenote: AFRICA AND ASIA.]
The African Collection is very extensive, and supplies a lacuna in the
collections of the British Museum, where there are few objects from this
continent. The same may be said of the series from the Asiatic Islands.
The collection from Asia proper is not very numerous; the races now
occupying that continent being generally in a more advanced state of
civilization than that which especially interested Mr. CHRISTY.
Attention should, however, be called to two valuable relics from China;
an Imperial State Seal carved in jade, and a set of tablets of the same
material, on which has been engraved a poem by the Emperor KIEN-LUNG.
[Sidenote: MELANESIA AND POLYNESIA.]
The Polynesian Room contains a valuable collection of weapons,
ornaments, and dresses, both from the islands inhabited by the black
races of the Pacific, and from those of Polynesia proper. Many of the
specimens are of interest, as belonging to a state of culture which has
now completely changed, and as illustrating manners and customs that
have disappeared before the commerce and the teaching of Europeans.
[Sidenote: ASIA.]
In the ‘Asian Room’ are placed the larger objects from the Pacific, such
as spears, clubs, and paddles. The collection of spears is very large
and interesting.
[Sidenote: AUSTRALIA AND PART OF NORTH AMERICA.]
The Australian Collection is very complete, and it would not be easy to
replace it, inasmuch as the native races are dwindling in most parts of
that continent.
[Sidenote: NORTH AND SOUTH AMERICA.]
The American department in chief includes antiquities and recent
implements and dresses from the North American Indians; ancient Carib
implements; and recent collections from British Guiana, and other parts
of South America. The most valuable part of the contents of this room is
the collection of Mexican antiquities, which is not only extensive, but
includes some specimens of great rarity. Among them should be especially
mentioned the following:—An axe of Avanturine jade, carved into the form
of a human figure; a remarkable knife of white chalcedony; a sacrificial
collar formed of a hard green stone; a squatting figure, of good
execution, sculptured out of a volcanic rock; and three remarkable
specimens coated with polished stones. The latter consist of a wooden
mask covered with a mosaic of blue stones, presumed to be turquoises,
but more probably a rare form of amazon-stone; a human skull made into a
mask, and coated with obsidian and the blue stone mentioned above; and a
knife with a blade of flint, and with a wooden handle, sculptured to
represent a Mexican divinity, and encrusted with obsidian, coral,
malachite, and other precious materials. [Sidenote: Franks’ _Report_, as
above.] There is also a small but choice collection of Peruvian pottery.
A catalogue of the collection was privately printed by Mr. CHRISTY in
1862; but it embraces only a small part of the present collection. A
more extended catalogue is in preparation.
It is due to accuracy to add that the aspect of the rooms devoted to the
CHRISTY Museum in Victoria Street, and the facilities of study which
they afford, are utterly unsatisfactory to real students. They are
adapted only to holiday sightseers, who look and go, and but to very
small groups, indeed, even of them.
Every praise is due both to the Trustees and to their officer, for
having done their best, under strait and lamentable limitations, the
_removal_ of which is the duty of Parliament and of the Chancellor of
the Exchequer, not that of the Trustees. Under the Premiership of such
an eminent scholar and writer as Mr. GLADSTONE, humbler students of
history and of literature would fain hope that a long-standing reproach
will speedily be removed; but his ministerial surroundings are
unfriendly to such anticipations. After words which we have recently
heard, _from the Treasury Bench itself_, about Public Parks, there is
only scanty ground for hope that much improvement can, under existing
circumstances, be looked for in respect to Public Museums.
At all events, the condition, as to space, of the CHRISTY Museum in
Victoria Street, no less than the condition, in that respect, of
portions of the general Museum of Antiquities at Bloomsbury itself—and
of nearly all our splendid national collections in Natural History—gives
tenfold importance to that question of speedy enlargement or efficient
reconstruction which it will be my duty rather to state, than to
discuss, in the next chapter. [Sidenote: THE STATE OF THE CHRISTY
COLLECTION VIEWED IN ITS BEARINGS UPON THE QUESTION OF MUSEUM
RECONSTRUCTION.] It will be my earnest aim to state it with
impartiality, and, for the most part, in better words than my own.
[Sidenote: THE ARCHÆOLOGICAL BEQUEST OF JAMES WOODHOUSE, OF CORFU.]
Next in importance—but next at a long interval—to the accessions which
the Nation owes to the munificence of Henry CHRISTY, comes the bequest
of Mr. James WOODHOUSE, of Corfu, the circumstances attendant upon which
have much singularity.
It is only of late years (speaking comparatively) that British Consuls
have become at all notable as collectors of antiquities. But when once
the new fashion was set, it spread rapidly, and it may now be hoped that
there will be as little lack of continuance as of speed. In Chapter V, I
had to mention (though very inadequately to the worth of their labours)
several Consuls in the Levant, who have eminently distinguished
themselves in augmenting our National Museum. But in this chapter the
reader must be introduced to a Consul who rather obstructed than
promoted a worthy public object.
James WOODHOUSE was a British subject engaged in commerce, who had
resided for many years at Corfu (where for a time he had filled the
office of Government Secretary), and who consoled his self-imposed exile
by collecting a cabinet of coins, which eventually became one of great
value, and also an extensive museum of miscellaneous, but chiefly of
Greek, antiquities. Repeatedly, during his lifetime, he announced his
desire and purpose to perpetuate his collection by giving it to the
British Museum. When his health failed, he began to superintend in
person the packing up of the most valuable portions of his museum; but
illness grew upon him, and he was forced to leave off his preparations
abruptly.
A delicate circumstance connected with his family circle seems to have
combined with this regretted interruption, by increasing illness, of his
precautionary measures and intentions (the secure fulfilling of which
lay near his heart), to make him uneasy and anxious. [Sidenote: THE
CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE WOODHOUSE BEQUEST.] He sent for a legal friend, Dr.
ZAMBELLI; told him of his plans, and also of his fears that they might
be—in the event of his sudden death, and he felt that death was fast
coming—obstructed. ZAMBELLI told him that the person to whom his purpose
and wishes ought to be communicated, without delay, was undoubtedly the
British Consul-General, Mr. SAUNDERS. In joint communication with both
of them, a deed of gift was prepared. ‘Having been engaged,’ said the
donor, ‘in numismatic pursuits, ... and being desirous that the
Collection of Coins _and other Antiquities_ so formed by me, should be
dedicated to national purposes, I give,’ and so on. No inventory,
however, had been made when the donor died, on the twenty-sixth of
February, 1866. Before WOODHOUSE’S death, Mr. Consul-General SAUNDERS
put a guard round the house; and, immediately after the event, sent away
all the household, taking official possession of the whole of the
effects, in the manner usual in cases of undoubted _intestacy_.[47] He
then, according to his own statement, set about ‘selecting such
portions’ of Mr. WOODHOUSE’S property as ‘seemed’ (to him and to a
clerical friend of the collector) ‘_suitable_ for the British Museum.’
Most naturally, when the intelligence came to the Museum, it was thought
by the Trustees that Mr. SAUNDERS had both very seriously exceeded, and
very gravely fallen short of, his obvious official duty. ‘Selection’ was
felt to have been superfluous in respect to any and every item, of every
kind, belonging to the donor’s museum. Just as plainly, the instant
forwarding of the whole, on the other hand, was a peremptory obligation
upon the British Consul.
Eventually (and by the zealous exertions of Sir A. PANIZZI and of Mr.
Charles NEWTON, respectively, on behalf of the Trustees) conclusive
evidence was placed before Lord STANLEY (the now Earl of DERBY, and
then, it will be remembered, Foreign Secretary of State) that Mr.
Consul-General SAUNDERS had divided the Woodhouse antiquities into _two_
portions, and had then proceeded to allot the smaller portion to the
British Museum, and the larger to the ‘heirs-at-law’ of the deceased.
Nor is it yet quite certain that such division was _all_ the division
that occurred.
After long inquiries and much correspondence—as well between the Foreign
Office and the Queen’s Advocate, as between the Trustees and their
officers on the one hand, and various persons at Corfu, including, of
course, the Consul-General himself, on the other—Lord STANLEY touched
the point of the affair with characteristic keenness when he wrote, in
his despatch to Mr. SAUNDERS of the seventh of January, 1867: ‘Your
neglect to _make an Inventory_ of the effects of the deceased has been
the main cause of the doubts which have been felt as to the propriety of
your conduct in this matter, and of the inquiry which has been the
consequence of those doubts.’
But that neglect was then incurable. And, subsequently to the despatch
thus worded, further inquiry has but made the omission more regrettable.
The making of the Inventory had been pressed on Mr. SAUNDERS’ attention
at the time of the Collector’s death.
[Sidenote: Newton; in _Returns to Parliament_, of the year 1866.]
That part of the WOODHOUSE Museum which came to England in 1866 included
a very interesting Collection of Greek Coins, chiefly from Corcyra,
Western Greece, and the Greek islands; an extensive series of rings and
other personal ornaments; some ancient glass; a few medallions; a few
sculptures, in marble, of doubtful antiquity; and last, but far indeed
from being least acceptable, a most beautiful head of Athené in cameo,
cut on a sardonyx. [Sidenote: Vischer, _Archaeologische Beiträge aus
Griechenland_, p. 2.] It was thought by the antiquary VISCHER—who saw
this fine cameo about the year 1854—that it represents the head of
PHIDIAS’ famous statue in gold and ivory, and therefore had a common
origin with the jasper intaglio so often praised by archæologists who
have seen the Imperial Cabinet at Vienna.
[Sidenote: LORD NAPIER OF MAGDALA, AND THE ADDITIONS TO THE MUSEUM OF
THE ANTIQUITIES AND MSS. OF ABYSSINIA, 1867–8.]
Some of my readers will remember that although war, and the calamities
which commonly accompany it, have often devastated museums and
libraries, it has occasionally enriched them. Sometimes by sheer
plunder, as under CATHARINE of Russia and the marshals of her predatory
armies. Sometimes by acts of genuine beneficence and public spirit, as
in Ireland under BLOUNT (afterwards Earl of Devonshire); and, again,
under the great Protector. Lord NAPIER adds his honoured name to the
small category of the soldiers who have justifiably turned victorious
arms to the profit of learning, and the enrichment of honestly built-up
national collections. I cannot, however, but regard as utterly unworthy
of the British arms and name certain acquisitions which were incidental
to that campaign. ‘Mr. HOLMES, the officer attached to the Abyssinian
Expedition by the Trustees of the British Museum’—I quote exactly and
literally from the ‘_Accounts and Estimates_’ of last year
(1869)—‘collected ... among other objects, a silver chalice and a paten
bearing Æthiopic inscriptions, showing them to have been given to
various churches by King THEODORE.’
[Sidenote: THE COLLECTION OF SACRAMENTAL PLATE IN ABYSSINIA.]
I am certain to be uncontradicted when I assert, that neither the
Trustees of the British Museum, nor Lord NAPIER of Magdala, instructed
Mr. HOLMES to take from Christian churches in Abyssinia their
sacramental plate, or their processional crosses.
It is a far pleasanter task to praise the diligence with which Mr.
HOLMES executed the Commission really given him by the Trustees. He
collected many specimens of Abyssinian art and industry which were fit
contributions to the National Museum. [Sidenote: THE COLLECTION OF
ABYSSINIAN MSS.] In like manner, Lord NAPIER authorised the collection,
partly by officers under his command, and partly by the researches of
Mr. HOLMES, of a series of Abyssinian Manuscripts, extending to three
hundred and thirty-nine volumes. These were given to the Museum by the
then Secretary of State for India.
[Sidenote: THE SLADE BEQUEST.]
In the same year with the Abyssinian spoils, came a noble addition to
the Art Collections of the Museum by the bequest of the late Felix
SLADE, and a rich addition to the Library, by the purchase of the
Japanese books collected by the late Dr. VON SIEBOLD, during the later
of his two visits to Japan, a country which he so largely contributed to
make well known to the rest of the world.
Felix SLADE was the younger son of Robert SLADE, in his day a well-known
Proctor in Doctors’ Commons. Mr. William SLADE, elder brother of Felix,
had inherited the valuable estate of Halsteads in Lonsdale (Yorkshire),
under the will of the last male-heir of that family, and on his early
death he was succeeded by his brother, the benefactor.
Truly a ‘benefactor.’ To purposes of public charity he bequeathed not
less than seven thousand pounds, and bequeathed that sum with wise
forethought, and with Christian generality of view. He founded and
munificently endowed Professorships of Art at each of the ancient
Universities, and at University College in London. To the British Museum
he gave the splendid bequest about to be described, which had been
selected with exquisite taste, knowledge and judgment, and which, under
such rare conditions of purchase, had cost him more than twenty-five
thousand pounds. [Sidenote: THE SLADE MUSEUM OF ANTIQUITIES. 1869.] I
describe it in the precise words—chiefly from the pen of one of his
Executors—which are used in the Return to Parliament of 1869:—‘The
collection of glass and other antiquities bequeathed to the Nation by
the late Felix SLADE, Esq., F.S.A., includes about nine hundred and
fifty specimens of ancient glass, selected with care, so as to represent
most of the phases through which the art of glass-working has passed.
Collected in the first instance with a view to artistic beauty alone,
the series has been since gradually enriched with historical specimens,
as well as with curiosities of manufacture, so as to illustrate the
history of glass in all its branches.
‘Of early Egyptian glass there are not many examples in the collection;
one of some interest is a case for holding the _stibium_, used by the
Egyptian ladies for the eye, and which is in the form of a papyrus
sceptre. The later productions of Egypt are represented by some very
minute specimens of mosaic glass, formed of slender filaments of various
colours fused together, and cut into transverse sections.
‘To the Phœnicians have been attributed the making of many little vases
of peculiar form and ornamentation that are met with, not unfrequently,
in tombs on the shores of the Mediterranean. They are of brilliant
colours, with zigzag decoration, and exhibit the same technical
peculiarities, so that they must have been derived from one centre of
fabrication. Of these vases there is a considerable series, showing most
of the varieties of form and colour that are known.
‘The collection is especially rich in vessels moulded into singular
shapes, found principally in Syria and the neighbouring islands, and
which were probably produced in the workshops of Sidon, but at a later
time; possibly as late as the Roman dominion. The Museum Collections
were previously very ill provided with such specimens. To the same date
must belong a vase handle, stamped with the name of ARTAS the Sidonian,
in Greek and Latin characters.
‘Of Roman glass there is a great variety, as might be expected from the
skill shown in glass-making during the Imperial times of Rome.
[Sidenote: A. W. Franks, _Account of Slade Museum_, in the Parliamentary
Returns of 1869.] Large vases were not especially sought after by Mr.
SLADE, but two fine cinerary urns may be noticed, remarkable not only
for their form, but for the beautiful iridescent colours with which time
has clothed them. There is also a very fine amber-coloured ewer, with
blue filaments round the neck, which was found in the Greek Archipelago;
an elegant jug or bottle with diagonal flutings, found at Barnwell, near
Cambridge, and a brown bottle, splashed with opaque white, from Germany.
Of cut glass, an art which it was formerly denied that the Romans
possessed, there are good examples; such, for instance, is a boat-shaped
vase of deep emerald hue, and of the same make apparently as the Sacro
Catino of Genoa; a bowl cut into facets, found near Merseburg, in
Germany; and a cup, similarly decorated, found near Cambridge. The last
two specimens are of a brilliant clear white, imitating rock crystal, a
variety of glass much esteemed by the Romans. Several vessels found in
Germany are remarkable for having patterns in coloured glass, trailed as
it were over the surface. There are two very fine bowls of millefiori
glass, one of them with patches of gold, and very numerous polished
fragments illustrating the great variety and taste shown by the ancients
in such vessels. Two vases exhibit designs in intaglio; one of them, a
subject with figures; the other, a bowl found near Merseburg, exhibits
the story of Diana and Actæon; the goddess is kneeling at a pool of
water in a grotto; Actæon is looking on, and a reflection of his head
with sprouting horns may be distinguished in the water at the goddess’s
feet; to prevent any mistake, the names of the personages, in Greek, are
added. This bowl may be of a late date, probably early Byzantine. Of
vases decorated in cameo, fragments alone are to be found in the
collection; but as only four entire vases are known, this is not
surprising. One of the fragments seems to be part of a large panel which
has represented buildings, &c., and has on it remains of a Greek
inscription. There are several glass cameos and intaglios, the
representatives of original gems that have long since been lost; one of
the cameos is a head of AUGUSTUS; another represents an Egyptian
princess; whilst among the intaglios are several of great excellence; of
these should particularly be noticed a blue paste representing Achilles
wounded in the heel, and crouching down behind his rich shield, a gem
worthy of the best period of Greek art. One of the rarest specimens in
the collection is a circular medallion of glass, on which is painted a
gryphon; the colours appear to be burnt in, and it is therefore a
genuine specimen of ancient painting on glass, of which but three other
instances are known.
‘In the fourth and fifth century it was the habit to ornament the
bottoms of bowls and cups with designs in gold, either fixed to the
surface or enclosed between two layers of glass. These specimens have
generally been found in the Catacombs of Rome; but two or three have
been found at Cologne, one of which is in the collection. It is the
remains of a disc of considerable size, with a central design, now
destroyed; around are eight compartments, with subjects from the Old and
New Testaments: Moses striking the Rock, the History of Jonah, Daniel in
the Lions’ Den, the Fiery Furnace, the Sacrifice of Isaac, the Nativity,
and the Paralytic Man; of these, the Nativity is a very rare
representation.
‘Of glass of a Teutonic origin there is but one specimen in the
collection, a tumbler of peculiar form, from a cemetery at Selzen, in
Rhenish Hesse. Like other glasses of the time, it is so made that it
cannot be put down until it has been emptied, and thus testifies to the
convivial habits of the Teutons.
‘Of early Byzantine glass but little is known; the bowl with Diana and
Actæon, already noticed, is very probably of that period; and a
Byzantine cameo with the head of CHRIST should be mentioned.
‘Of glass of the middle ages, from the West of Europe, but little or
nothing has been preserved save the exquisite painted glass in
cathedrals and churches. Of the Eastern glass of the same period several
specimens are in the collection. Among these is a very beautiful bottle,
probably of the thirteenth century, decorated with a minute pattern of
birds; a lamp of large size, made in Syria to hang in a mosque, bears
the name of SHEIKHOO, a man of great wealth and importance in Egypt and
Syria, who died in 1356, after building a mosque at Cairo.
‘To a later period of the Eastern glass works may be referred an ewer of
a sapphire blue, resplendent with gold arabesques, and several other
richly decorated pieces, all made in Persia.
‘Venice for many centuries held the foremost place among the makers of
glass. Enriched, to begin with, by her very extensive trade in beads,
she received gladly the Byzantine workers in glass, who had been driven
out of Constantinople by the Turks. Henceforward the variety of her
glass wares increased, and must have brought much profit. The earliest
glass vases which can with certainty be referred to Venice are of the
fifteenth century; of these, a large covered cup with gilt ribs is
remarkable for its early date and size. The two finest specimens are,
however, two goblets richly enameled; one of them is blue, with a
triumph of Venus; the other green, with two portraits. These were the
choicest specimens in the DEBRUGE and SOLTYKOFF Collections
successively, and were obtained by Mr. SLADE, for upwards of four
hundred pounds, at the sale of the latter collection. Among other
enameled specimens may be noticed three shallow bowls, or dishes, with
heraldic devices: one has the arms of Pope LEO X, 1513–1521; another
those of LEONARDO LOREDANO, Doge of Venice, 1501–1521; and the third the
arms of FABRIZIO CARETTO, Grand Master of the Order of St. John of
Jerusalem, 1513–1521.
‘The blown glasses of Venice are numerous and well selected, exhibiting
great beauty of outline and variety of design. Among them should be
especially remarked, a very tall covered cup, surmounted with a winged
serpent, from the BERNAL Collection; and two drinking glasses, with
enameled flowers forming the stems.
‘The coloured vases display most of the hues made at Venice; ruby,
purple, green, and blue, as well as an opalescent white and an opaque
white, the latter often diversified with splashes of other colours. To
these may be added various imitations of agate, avanturine, &c.
[Sidenote: Franks, as above.] Another peculiar fabric of Venice is well
illustrated, the frosted glass belonging generally to an early period.
‘In the production of millefiori glass the Venetians did not equal the
ancients, either in harmony of colour or variety of design. The rosettes
were formed of sections of canes, such as were employed in making beads.
The specimens of this glass are rare, but there are not less than seven
pieces so ornamented in the collection.
‘Of lace glass, one of the most remarkable productions of Venice, and
which nowhere has been carried to such perfection, there are many fine
specimens, both in form and delicacy of pattern, as there are likewise
of the variety called reticelle. Among the latter is a tall covered cup
with snakes on the cover and in the stem; there should also be noticed a
drinking glass, in the stem of which is enclosed a half sequin of the
Doge FRANCESCO MOLINO, 1647.
‘Of unquestionably ancient French glass but few specimens are known.
This adds much to the value of a goblet in the collection, with enameled
portrait of Jehan BOUCAU and his wife Antoinette, made about 1530.
‘German glass is fully represented: the earlier specimens are richly
decorated with enamel, chiefly heraldic devices; they are dated 1571,
1572, &c. A few are painted like window glass, and among them is a
cylindrical cup, dated 1662, on which is depicted the procession at the
christening of MAXIMILIAN EMMANUEL, afterwards Elector of Bavaria. The
later German specimens are engraved, and some of them by artists of
note. Of ruby glass, another production for which Germany was famed,
there are good specimens; one bears the cypher of JOHN GEORGE IV,
Elector of Saxony, another that of FREDERICK THE FIRST. KUNCKEL, to whom
these glasses are attributed, was successively in the service of both
princes.
‘Though glass was early made in Flanders, the most ancient specimens in
the collection under this head have been regarded as Venetian glasses
decorated in the Low Countries. If made at Venice, they must, from
certain peculiarities of form, have been designed for the Flemish and
Dutch markets. The ornaments are etched, and contain allusions to the
political events of the country: for instance, the arms of the seventeen
provinces chained to those of Spain, and dated 1655; a portrait of
PHILIP IV; WILLIAM II of Orange; his wife, MARY OF ENGLAND; OLDEN
BARNEVELDT, &c. Some of the later specimens are engraved on the lathe in
a very ornamental manner, and others delicately stippled. One of the
latter bears the name of F. GREENWOOD, and others are attributed to
WOLF.
‘In English glass the collection is not rich, the difficulty of
identifying such specimens being very great; some of them are referred
to the works at Bristol, which produced ornamental glass about a century
ago.
‘Some valuable additions to the collection of glass have been received
from the Executors of Mr. SLADE, purchased by them out of funds set
aside for the purpose. They are nineteen in number, and among them may
be especially noticed a very fine Oriental bottle with elaborate
patterns in gold and enamel, together with figures of huntsmen, &c. It
may be referred to the fourteenth century, and was formerly in the
possession of a noble family at Wurzburg. Two specimens of Chinese
glass, dated in the reign of the Emperor KIEN-LUNG, 1736–1796; and
several ancient Flemish and Dutch glasses.
[Sidenote: Franks, as above.]
‘By the acquisition of the SLADE Collection the series of ancient and
more recent glass in the British Museum has probably become more
extensive, as well as more instructive, than any other public collection
of the kind, and it will afford ample materials for study both to the
artist and the antiquary.
‘In addition to his collection of glass, Mr. SLADE has bequeathed to the
Museum a small series of carvings in ivory and metal work, from Japan,
which are full of the humour and quaintness which characterise the art
of that country.
‘He has likewise bequeathed to the Museum such of the miscellaneous
works of art in his possession as should be selected by one of his
Executors, Mr. FRANKS. The objects so selected are not numerous, but
include some valuable additions to the National Collection.
‘Among them may be noticed the following:—Two very beautiful Greek
painted vases, œnochoæ with red figures of a fine style; these were two
of the gems of the DURAND and HOPE Collections successively; also a fine
tazza, with red figures very well drawn, formerly in the ROGERS
Collection. Two red bowls of the so-called Samian ware, with ornaments
in relief; one of them was discovered near Capua, the other is believed
to have been found in Germany; an antique hand, in rock crystal, of
which a drawing by Santo BARTOLI is preserved in the Royal Library at
Windsor, and a small Roman vase of onyx; a panel, probably from a book
cover, a fine example of German enamel of the twelfth century, from the
PREAUX Collection; a very fine flask-shaped vase of Italian majolica,
probably of Urbino ware, and representing battle scenes; three elegant
ewers, one of them made at Nevers, another of Avignon ware, and the
third probably Venetian—all three are rare specimens; an oval plate of
niello work on silver, and a silver plate engraved in the style of
CRISPIN DE PASSE; three early specimens of stamped leather work,
commonly termed cuirbouilli; [Sidenote: Franks, as above.] a tile from
the Alhambra, but probably belonging to the restorations made to that
building in the sixteenth century.
‘The value of Mr. SLADE’S bequest is considerably increased by a very
detailed and profusely illustrated catalogue of the Collection which,
having been prepared during his lifetime, will be completed and
distributed, according to his directions.
‘Since the CRACHERODE bequest, which formed the nucleus of the British
Museum Print Collections, no acquisition of the kind approaches the
bequest of Mr. SLADE in rare and choice specimens of etchings and
engravings, wherein nearly every artist of distinction is represented.
The collection comprises rare specimens of impressions from Nielli and
prints of the School of Baldini; fine examples of some of the best
productions of Andrea Mantegna, Zoan Andrea Vavassori, Girolamo Mocetto,
Giovanni Battista del Porto, Jean Duvet, Marc Antonio, with his scholars
and followers, the master of the year 1466; [Sidenote: G. W. Reid, in
Parliamentary Returns of 1869.] Martin Schongauer, Israel van Meckenen,
Albert Dürer, Lucas van Leyden, Hans Burgmair, Lucas Cranach, Matheus
Zazinger, the Behams, Rembrandt, Vandyck, Adrian Ostade, Paul Potter,
Karl du Jardin, Jan Both, N. Berghem, Agostino Caracci, Wenceslaus
Hollar, Cornelius Visscher, Crispin and Simon de Passe, S. à Bolswert,
Houbraken, L. Vorsterman, Jacques Callot, Claude Mellan, Nanteuil,
George Wille, Faithorne, Hogarth, L. A. B. Desnoyers, F. Forster, Sir R.
Strange, William Woollett, Porporati, Pefetti, Pietro Anderloni, Raphael
Morghen, Giuseppe Longhi, Garavaglio, and others. There are also some
rare English portraits and book-illustrations.
[Sidenote: THE SPECIMENS OF PRINTING AND BINDING IN THE SLADE
COLLECTION.]
‘The specimens of binding from the SLADE Collection (now placed in the
Printed Book Department), continues the Report of 1869, are twenty-three
in number, chiefly of foreign execution, and afford examples of the
style of PADELOUP, DUSSEUIL, DEROME, and other eminent binders. One of
the volumes, an edition of PAULUS ÆMYLIUS, _De gestis Francorum_ (Paris,
1555, 8vo), is a beautiful specimen of the French style of the period,
with the sides and back richly ornamented in the Grolier manner. An
Italian translation of the works of Horace (Venice, 1581, 4to), is of
French execution, richly tooled, and bears the arms of HENRY III of
France. A folio volume of the _Reformation der Stadt Nürnberg_
(Frankfort, 1566), which is a magnificent specimen of contemporary
German binding, formerly belonged to the Emperor MAXIMILIAN THE SECOND,
whose arms are painted on the elegantly goffered gilt edges. An edition
of PTOLEMY’S _Geographicæ Narrationis libri octo_ (Lyons, 1541, fol.)
affords a fine illustration of the Italian style of about that date. The
copy of a French translation of XENOPHON’S _Cyropædia_, by Jacques de
VINTEMILLE (Paris, 1547, 4to), appears to have been bound for King
EDWARD VI, of England, whose arms and cypher are on the sides, while the
rose is five times worked in gold on the back. [Sidenote: T. Watts, in
_Returns_, as above.] A volume of Bishop HALL’S _Contemplations on the
Old Testament_ (London, 1626, 8vo), in olive morocco contemporary
English binding, has the Royal arms in the centre of the sides, and
appears to have been the dedication copy of King CHARLES THE FIRST.’ It
is proposed, concludes the _Report_, to exhibit some of the most
beautiful specimens comprised in Mr. SLADE’S valuable donation, in one
of the select cases in the King’s Library.
Mr. SLADE also bequeathed three thousand pounds for the augmentation, by
his Executors, of his Collection of Ancient Glass, and five thousand
pounds to be by them expended in the restoration of the parish church of
Thornton-in-Lonsdale.
[Sidenote: VON SIEBOLD AND HIS JAPANESE COLLECTIONS OF 1823–8.]
Philip VON SIEBOLD was born at Wurtzburg, in February, 1796, and in the
university of that town he received his education. He adopted the
profession of medicine, but devoted himself largely to the study of
natural history. In the joint capacity of physician and naturalist, he
accompanied the Dutch Embassy to Japan in the year 1823. He was a true
lover of humanity, as well as a lover of science. Many Japanese students
were taught by him both the curative arts, and the passion for doing
good to their fellow-men, which ought to be the condition of their
exercise and practice. He won the respect of the Japanese, but his
ardent pursuit of knowledge brought him into great peril.
In 1828 he was about to return to Europe, laden with scientific
treasures, when he was suddenly seized and imprisoned for having
procured access to an official map of the Empire, in order to improve
his knowledge of its topography. His imprisonment lasted thirteen
months. At last he was liberated, and ordered to do what he was just
about to do when arrested. (SIEBOLD, says his biographer, _kam mit der
Verbannung davon_.) But his banishment was not perpetual. In 1859, he
returned. He won favour and employment from the then Tycoon. He returned
to his birthplace in 1862, and died there in October, 1866.
Of his second library, Mr. WATTS wrote thus:—‘The collection of Japanese
books was one of two formed by Dr. VON SIEBOLD during his residence in,
and visits to, Japan. The first of these collections, which is now at
Leyden, and of which a catalogue was published in 1845, was long
considered as beyond comparison the finest of its kind out of Japan and
China; but the second, now in the Museum, is much superior. That at
Leyden comprises five hundred and twenty-five works, that in London one
thousand and eighty-eight works, in three thousand four hundred and
forty-one volumes. It contains specimens of every class of literature:
cyclopædias, histories, law-books, political pamphlets, novels, plays,
poetry, works on science, on antiquities, on female costume, on cookery,
on carpentry, and on dancing. It abounds in works illustrative of the
topography of Japan, as, for instance, one, in twenty volumes, on the
secular capital Yeddo, and two, in eleven volumes, on the religious
capital Miaco; collections of views of Yeddo and of the volcano
Fusiyama, &c. &c. There are also several dictionaries of European
languages, testifying to the eagerness with which the Japanese now
pursue that study. The Museum was already in possession of a second
edition of an English dictionary published at Yeddo in 1866, in which
the lexicographer, HORI TATSNOSKAY, observes in the preface, “As the
study of the English language is now becoming general in our country, we
have had for some time the desire to publish a pocket dictionary of the
English and Japanese languages, as an assistance to our scholars,” and
adds that the first edition is “entirely sold out.” These dictionaries
may now assist Europeans to study the language of Japan, and it is
believed that the Japanese Library now in the Museum will afford
unequalled opportunities for the study of its literature.’
This was the last sentence in the last official report which Mr. WATTS
lived to write, for the purpose of being laid before Parliament. He died
on the ninth of September, 1869, at the age of fifty-nine. His post was
not filled up until the end of December, when he was succeeded by Mr.
William Brenchley RYE, who was then Senior Assistant-Keeper in the
Department of Printed Books. Mr. RYE is well known in literature. He has
edited, with great ability, several works of early travel for the useful
‘Hakluyt Society,’—an employment which he has often shared with his
friends and Museum colleagues Messrs. Winter JONES and Richard Henry
MAJOR, and with like honourable distinction in its performance. More
recently, he has increased his reputation by a book which has been
largely read, and which well deserves its popularity—_England as seen by
Foreigners_. This work was published in 1865.