Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 10.djvu/14

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NOTES AND QUERIES/ no s. x. JULY 4,

whose quotations preceded them ; and only by chance or a happy effort of memory could the mistakes be righted. I can offer no better explanation than this to account for Allot' s errors of attribution, which I purpose dealing with more fully now. This explanation also accounts for the mixed quotations which have already been dealt with, and it shifts part of the blame for them from Allot' s shoulders to those of his printers.

CHARLES CRAWFORD. (To be continued.)

GTJLSTON COLLECTION OF PRINTS. John Nichols in the fifth volume of his * Illustra- tions of the Literary History of the Eigh- teenth Century ' writes at some length on Joseph Gulston and his son the collector, who, it is said, dissipated a huge fortune and several estates in collecting books and prints, and in building. There is no appa- rent reason for Nichols's diffuseness on the family romance and misfortunes. Neither the father nor his extravagant son was a benefactor to the arts, and just where information is most wanted, Nichols is .annoyingly brief or inaccurate. It may be assumed that the collections which no money was spared to perfect would be worth careful Analysis and study ; but of the library virtually nothing is said, and the summary of the extraordinary assemblage of prints is at fault in many particulars.

"In the spring of 1786 he determined to sell his isuperb collection of prints, having in vain made every effort to dispose of them to the Empress of Russia for the sum of twenty thousand pounds. The following is a correct account of them." The summary that follows is too long to give at length, but from it I extract :

"Eighteen thousand foreign portraits, being a collection of Eminent Engravers of Every Country.

"Twenty-three thousand five hundred portraits of the English series, placed according to Mr. Granger's 'Biographical History.'

" The topographical collection of England, Ire- land, Scotland, and Wales, containing fourteen thousand five hundred prints ; together with the collection of the topographical books, several of them interleaved with MS. notes and additions by the authors. There are also all the copies that have been printed on large paper."

This provides interesting reading, but was evidently written when the collection was still in its owner's possession. It is entirely at variance with what was actually offered at its dispersal. The sale began at 6 o'clock on 16 Jan., 1786, and continued for thirty-seven succeeding evenings, Sun- days excepted. Instead of the careful

lassification and bound collections, the prints were hopelessly mixed, topographical, early masters, English and foreign portraits, alternating, without the slightest attempt at arrangement of period, subject, or treat- ment. Here are some lots from the second night :

28. Thirty political.

29. Thirty mezzotintos.

30. Twelve after Rubens and Vandyke.

31. Seventeen Dutch etchings.

32. Twelve portraits drawings.

33. Twelve by Hogarth.

45. One hundred and twenty-seven prints of Hollar, from Dugdale's ' Warwickshire,' &c.

46. Four prints, mezzotintos of Sir Erasmus Smith and his Lady, by George White, rariss.

47. Twelve by Nanteuil.

48. Ten large views of Audley End by Win- stanley, rariss.

Not only in mere numbers, but also in general excellence, this must always be considered the most important collection of prints ever offered for sale. The amount realized is an imperfect indication, the ex- tremely defective cataloguing, the huge numbers surfeiting the market, and the change of taste making all the differ- ence between the result of this sale and that obtained for Sir Mark Masterman Sykes's collection, which in 1824 realized 18,309?. 9s. 6d.

The Gulston Collection is rarely mentioned, although it was largely the origin of the Musgrave and Tyssen collections. The cata- logue is scarce, and affords no information It is certain that John Nichols, or the niece of Gulston' s daughter who provided much of his information, did not consult a copy ; and as he in this important matter failed, so has the writer of Gulston' s biography in the ' D.N.B.' ALECK ABRAHAMS.

OXFORD COMMEMORATION IN 1759. In the ' Varsity [sic] Souvenir of the Oxford Pageant of 1907' is an engraving of the Encaenia or Commemoration, representing the Sheldonian Theatre crowded at the inauguration of John Fane, Earl of West- moreland, on 5 July, 1759. This is repro- duced probably from a fine large engraving of the subject which is very scarce. There, are in it supposablymany portraits of Oxford celebrities of that period. The gentlemen are wearing wigs, the Chancellor one of extraordinary magnitude ; the ladies have hooped petticoats and large fans. The Chancellor, Lord Westmoreland, who had been a distinguished soldier, died in 1762-3.

In ' Selecta Poemata Anglorum ' (1779) is a long poem in Latin hexameters entitled