Lot 156

Hamilton, Sir William.

Estimate

700 - 1,000 GBP

bidding is closed

Description

Collection of Engravings from Ancient Vases, mostly of pure Greek workmanship discovered in sepulchres in the kingdom of the two Sicilies, but chiefly in the neighbourhood of Naples. Naples: A.W. Tischbein, 1791

first edition, volume 1 only (of 4), folio (497 x 365mm.), engraved title, dedication, 63 plates (numbered 2-3, 1-60 and one unumbered, bound after the dedication), text in English and French, errata leaf, contemporary diced russia gilt, premlinary blanks creased, upper cover detached

Literature

Blackmer 778 (without the additional unnumbered plate, depicting the opening of one of the sepulchres, present in this copy); cf. Cohen-de Ricci 993-994 (French edition of 1803-1809 only); not in Berlin Kat. nor Cicognara

Catalogue Note

Sir William Hamilton (1730-1803), British ambassador at Naples and archaeologist, sold his first collection of vases from southern Italy and Sicily to the British Museum in 1772, and the 'Portland Vase' to the Duchess of Portland in 1784. Hamilton then began his second collection of vases in 1789, completing it by 1791. He published the designs in the present work assisted by Anton Wilhelm Tischbein, Director of the Academy of Painting at Naples who engraved the plates in a distinctive oultine style more associated with the work of John Flaxman. Hamilton was assisted also in the preparation of the text by the Russian ambassador at Naples, Prince Italinski. Hamilton's second collection was then offered to the King of Prussia, who declined. Subsequently it was shipped to England in 1798. Part was lost off the Isles of Scilly in the Colossus, only sixteen of twenty-four cases being recovered: these were later sold to Thomas Hope for his country house at Deepdene in 1801.