397 



BRITISH MUSEUM, THE. 



BRITISH MUSEUM, THE. 



398 



a collection of engravings by Cornelius and Jan Visscher, in 1840 ; a 

 collection of 209 portraits, published by Messrs. Paul and Dominic Col- 

 naghi, who presented them to the Museum, in 1842 ; " a most valuable 

 purchase," made in the same year, " out of the collection late the pro- 

 perty of Mr. Harding, consisting of the finest specimens of the works 

 of the early Italian and German masters, etchings by Rembrandt, many 

 of them in a unique state, and some splendid specimens of engravings 

 by Wille, Woollett, Muller, Langhi, Bewick, &c., comprising 321 

 pieces." These were purchased for the sum of 2390?. In 1843 a col- 

 lection of Raphael Morghens was acquired for 15751. ; and in 1845 a 

 collection of early German engravings was obtained for 28301. , and of 

 Italian for 48751. These are described in the Parliamentary return as 

 follows: "A curious collection of the prints of the earlier German 

 engravers, amounting to 1 755 in number ; amongst them will be found 

 no fewer than 164 specimens by the Master of 1466 and the artists of 

 that period ;" and " An uncommonly fine collection of early Italian 

 art, embracing the most extensive collection of the workers in nielli 

 known. It consists of 103 specimens in silver, 15 impressions in 

 sulphur, and 63 impressions on paper. In 1848 there was added 

 another large collection of etchings and drawings, purchased from 

 the Messrs. Smith for 4200/. In 1851, a collection of caricatures by 

 Gillray, 1398 in number, was presented by W. Smith, Esq. ; and in 

 1853, a collection of original drawings made by Sir Wm. Gell, 

 amounting in number to 800, was bequeathed by the late Hon. R. 

 Keppel Craven. 



In the report of the Royal Commissioners of Inquiry into the British 

 Museum, a recommendation was given to exhibit some of the engravings 

 to the public. In compliance with this recommendation, a selection 

 from the prints and drawings is now exhibited in the King's Library, 

 the arrangement of which is as follows : * 



" Four screens have been fixed on each side ; those on the left hand 

 (when entering from the Manuscript department) being appropriated 

 to the exhibition of drawings ; those on the right to the display of 

 engravings. The space available for the exhibition of these objects 

 being necessarily circumscribed, the purpose has been to offer such a 

 selection as shall give to the public an opportunity of tracing the 

 development of design as shown in the sketches and studies of the 

 great masters of Italy, Germany, Flanders, and Holland, during the 

 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries. Screens I. and II. are devoted to 

 the schools of Italy; III. and IV. to tho^e of Germany, Flanders, and 

 Holland. With respect to the engravings, it will be seen that the 

 arrangement is such as will afford the opportunity of comparing the 

 contemporaneous productions of the principal masters of the schools of 

 Italy, Germany, Flanders, and Holland, from the middle of the 15th 

 to the end of the 16th century. These are followed by a selection of a 

 few of the most successful effort* of the Dutch and Flemish engravers 

 of the 17th century, with specimens of etchings by their most distin- 

 guished painters, who so enthusiastically and so successfully practised 

 that branch of art at the same period. Some fine examples by the 

 Italian workers in niello, consisting of engraved silver plates, sulphur 

 casts, and impressions on paper, are shown in the glazed cases marked 

 I. and II., and in III. and IV. are early Italian and German wood blocks, 

 printed in chiaroscuro." 



Among the drawings thus exhibited will be found admirable speci- 

 mens of Giotto, Fra Angelico, Masaccio, Filippo Lippi and Filippino 

 Lippi, Paolo Uccelli, Sandro Botticelli, Michel Angelo, Lorenzo Credi, 

 Fra Bartolommeo, and Andrea Del Sarto, all of the Florentine School ; 

 of Perugino, Raffaelle, Giulio Romano, Muziano, and others of the 

 Roman School ; of Giovanni and Gentile Bellini, Giorgione, Campag- 

 nola, Tiziano, Paolo Veronese, Tintoretto, Bassano, and Canaletto of the 

 Venetian School ; of Leonardo da Vinci, and Gaudenzio Ferrari, of the 

 Milanese School ; of Correggio and Parmigiano, of the Parmesan 

 School ; and of Francia, the three Carracci, Guido, and Guercino, of 

 the Bolognese School. Among the drawings of the German masters 

 are placed some fine examples of Michael Wohlgemuth, Schongauer, 

 Peter Vischer, Albert Durer, Hans Holbein, Grun, Burgkmair, 

 Altdorfer, and Rottenhamer. The Flemish and Dutch artists are 

 well represented in a collection of drawings by Vander Weyde, 

 Hun* Memling, Mabuse, Heemskerk, Breughel, Bril, Rubens, Van 

 Dyck, Snyders, Rembrandt, Bol, Ruysdael, Ostade, Van de Velde, 

 Bakhuyzen, Bcrghem, Paul Potter, and Cuyp. While this collection 

 of drawings, as a whole, illustrates the history of art, many of the 

 specimens that it contains are in themselves highly beautiful, both for 

 design and execution. 



The collection of nielli and of sulphur casts in the British Museum is 

 well known to be the finest in the world. Some fine specimens of Maso 

 Kiuiguerra, the most renowned worker in this branch of art, the 

 parent of engraving, will be found in this exhibition ; together with 

 some impressions on paper from works in niello by Finiguerra, Pere- 

 grino da Cesena, Francia, and others. 



Among the engravings there are several examples of the Italian School, 

 commencing with Baccio Baldini, and including Botticelli, Campagnola, 

 Mantegna, Pollajolo, Leonardo da Vinci, Raimondi, the " Master of 

 the Die," and numerous others. The examples from the German, 

 Flemish, and Dutch schools are still more numerous ; embracing 



'A Guide to the Drawings nd Prints exhibited to the Public In the King's 

 Library.' 



specimens of the "Master of 1466," of Martin Schongauer, Martin 

 Zagel, Albert Durer, Lucas Van Leyden, George Pencz, Goltzius, 

 Muller, Rubens, Van Dyck, Paul Potter, Teniers, Ostade, and Rem- 

 brandt. Of the last mentioned there are exhibited some of the finest 

 etchings that the Museum or the world has to show, two of which 

 must be particularly mentioned, namely, No. 212, " Christ healing the 

 Sick : first state, known as the hundred guilder piece, it having sold 

 for that price (equal to about eight guineas,) during the life-time of the 

 painter;" also, No. 217. "Portrait of Ephraim Bonus, an eminent 

 Jewish Physician of Amsterdam : first state, with the black ring, only 

 three other impressions being known." 



Departments of Natural History. Sir Hans Sloane's collection of 

 objects of natural history, which, however insignificant it may now 

 appear, was very considerable for the time when it was brought 

 together, forms the nucleus of the present extensive departments of 

 Zoology, Paleontology, Mineralogy, and Botany. It consisted of quad- 

 rupeds and their parts ; birds and their parts, eggs, and nests ; 

 amphibia, Crustacea, shells, echini, entrochi, insects, corals, sponges, 

 zoophytes, stones, ores, bitumens, salts, and an extensive herbarium. 

 But to this department also, in the infancy of the Museum, all miscel- 

 laneous artificial curiosities were consigned, with a few antiquities and 

 a collection of anatomical preparations, all of which have since been 

 separated from it. 



The science of natural history, however, in course of time, made 

 such rapid progress, that the collection of Sir Hans Sloane, which 

 when purchased was deemed of the first magnitude, declined in its 

 comparative value with respect to every one of its departments. 



To supply its deficiencies, the trustees, in 1769, purchased a 

 collection of well-preserved stuffed birds which had been brought over 

 from Holland, for 4601. Many additions were afterwards made by 

 purchase and donation. The voyages of discovery early in the reign 

 of George III. brought numerous acquisitions ; and in 1816 a rich 

 collection of British zoology, which had belonged to Col. Montague, of 

 Knowle in Devonshire (including a very large number of birds), was 

 purchased for 11002. A valuable collection of stuffed birds was 

 bequeathed to the Museum in 1835, by the late Major General 

 Hardwicke. Since that time still larger acquisitions have been made 

 by presents and purchase, in the class of ornithology, so that the 

 aggregate now forms a collection, not indeed complete, but as extensive 

 as most of the collections in Europe. 



Similar progress has been made in increasing the collections of 

 mammalia, fishes, reptiles, insects, and Crustacea in the British Mu- 

 seum. With regard to the extent of these collections in 1849, Dr. 

 Gray submitted the following statement to her Majesty's commissioners 

 of inquiry into the constitution and management of the British Mu- 

 seum : " In 1836, Mr. Gray gave some account of the state of the 

 Museum collections, compared with those on the Continent. Since 

 that period he has had the opportunity of again inspecting those 

 collections, and others in the south and eastern parts of Germany, and 

 the south of France, which he had not then seen, and he considers the 

 statements made at that time to require no corrections ; but the com- 

 parison is now much more favourable for the British Museum, that 

 collection having been increasing very rapidly, indeed in a most unex- 

 ampled manner, while most of the continental collections have for 

 the last six or seven years, for some political reason, been nearly 

 stationary ; or, at most, increasing a single part of their collections, or 

 receiving specimens from a single locality where they happened to 

 have a collector staying. To enter into a few details, Mr. Gray believes 

 that the Museum collections of mammalia, birds, shells, and lepido- 

 pterous insects, are much more extensive than any other public collec- 

 tion, and superior to all the public collections together. This is 

 certainly the case with the first and last mentioned groups ; and he 

 believes also with the other two. The collections of reptiles, fish and 

 Crustacea, are only second to those at Paris, if at all below them"; but 

 Cuvier, and Valenciennes, and Dumeril, and Bibron, and M. Milne 

 Edwards, having for years been engaged in works on those three classes, 

 they have concentrated their attention on increasing them, and have 

 received specimens from all parts of the world, for the purpose of 

 enabling them to complete their labours, which makes it probable that 

 their collection is richer in these classes. The Museum collection in 

 each of these classes contains many species which the Paris collection 

 wants. The Museum collection of insects, taken as a whole, is 

 much larger and better arranged than that of Paris. In some parts, 

 the Berlin collections exceed it. The collections of corals, sea-eggs, 

 and star-fishes, are very large, far larger than those of all the other 

 European collections together." Since the time when this evidence 

 was submitted to H. M.'s commissioners, the collections in the 

 British Museum have continued to increase both in number and 

 importance. 



For this, much is due to the additional stimulus given to the study 

 of natural history through our free intercourse with the public and 

 private museums on the continent, ever since the close of the war 

 in 1815 ; but a great deal also to the energy and skill of the present 

 keeper of the zoological department, Dr. John Edward Gray, and of 

 his able assistants, Messrs. George Gray, Adam White, Dr. Baird, and 

 Frederick Smith. Dr. Gray succeeded to his present office upon the 

 retirement of the late Mr. Children, in 1840; since which time it is 

 that the Museum collections of zoology have taken the rank that they 



