GENERAL PROGRESS AT THE MUSEUM. li 



the handwriting of Charles DickenS; has been presented by 

 Mr. W. A. White, of New York. 



The Department of Oriental Printed Books and Manuscripts 

 has acquired two volumes of exceptional interest during the 

 year. One is a Coptic MS. of the first half of the fourth 

 century, containing the books of Deuteronomy, Jonah, and the 

 Acts of the Apostles, in the Sahidic dialect, which is one of the 

 earliest Biblical MSS. of any considerable size in existence. 

 The other is an illuminated copy of the " Divan " of the Persian 

 poet Hafiz, containing seven beautiful full-page miniatures of 

 the best Indo-Persian school, and one in the classical Persian 

 style. Another interesting accession (due to the gift of Mr. G. 

 M. H. Playfair) consists of two of the few surviving parts of 

 the great manuscript Chinese Encyclopaedia, nearly the whole 

 of which was destroyed by the Chinese insurgents in Pekin 

 during the siege of the legations in 1900. 



The principal purchases of the Department of Prints and 

 Drawings were made at the sale of the late Mr. Alfred Huth's 

 prints in June, at which a considerable number of rare German 

 woodcuts and engravings were acquired. A very valuable 

 volume of woodcuts by Lucas Cranach, from the same sale, was 

 presented by Mr. Campbell Dodgson. The Department also 

 received many other accessions from private liberality, notably 

 a collection of studies of birds and animals by Mrs. Blackburn, 

 presented by the executors of the late Prof. Hugh Blackburn 

 in accordance with his wishes ; seventeen drawings by the late 

 J. M. Swan, R.A., presented by the John M. Swan Memorial 

 Fund through Mr. J, S. J. Drucker ; four portfolios of etchings 

 by Col. R. C. GofF, presented (in continuation of previous gifts) 

 by the artist ; and a large number of engraved portraits, 

 presented by Mr. E. E. Leggatt. Particulars of many other 

 donations will be found in the Keeper's report below. 



The accessions of the Department of Egyptian and Assyrian 

 Antiquities include a large collection of scarabs of the Hyksos 

 period ; a mastabah door bearing the very rare cartouche of 

 Psammetichus III. ; a very fine seated statue of a scribe and 

 architect named Sen-Mut, about B.C. 1550; and thirty three 

 Babylonian cylinder-seals in lapis lazuli, chalcedony, sard, and 

 similar stones. Some interesting Coptic and Himyaritic 

 antiquities have also been acquired. 



The Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities has been 

 unusually fortunate, having obtained at least three accessions 

 which may be counted as of first-rate importance. One of these 

 is a very fine sepulchral relief of the fourth century B.C., of 

 exceptional size, which (with the somewhat smaller example 

 acquired in 1910) greatly strengthens the collections of the 

 Museum in this class of sculpture. Another is a bronze head, 

 probably of the Emperor Augustus, of more than life size, with 

 eyes inlaid with glass and alabaster, which was discovered on 

 the site of the ancient Meroe, in Nubia, during the excavations 

 0.91 B 



