SECTION OF GRAPHIC ARTS. 153 



the earlier part of this period he has found it possible to secure specimens which are 

 becoming rarer from year to year. In a connected series, such as the Sewall collec- 

 tion represents, even specimens not of the first quality assume great importance, 

 since they supply links in a chain which would be broken without them. It would 

 be inexcusable, therefore, to allow this collection to be dispersed, a fate which is in- 

 evitably in store for it if it is not acquired by some public institution. 



Of the price asked it may be said without hesitation that it is extraordinarily low. 

 The sum total demanded is $55,760, of which $560 is for the drawiugs. Ignoring the 

 4,100 pieces set aside by the owner as of no value, we have the price of $55,200 for 

 16,300 prints, or an average of $3.39 for each print. As many of these prints would 

 to-day bring from one hundred to several hundred dollars each in open market, the 

 smallness of the sum named is apparent from these figures alone. A better way, 

 however, to arrive at some idea of the market value of the collection, will be to com- 

 pare the prices set down in Mr. Se wall's inventory for a number of specified prints 

 with the prices lately realized for the same prints at auction sales in Europe. I 

 have tried to do this, by going over the inventory and selecting from it such prints 

 as had appeared also in the Coppenrath sale, which took place in Europe last year, 

 being careful to compare state with state, so far as that point could be settled. The 

 result is that, if the whole collection were invoiced at prices equivalent throughout 

 to those obtained for the prints involved at the sale named, the Sewall collection 

 would be worth to-day about $145,000. It would not be safe, however, to accept this 

 figure without further questioning. A comparison of the prints as to quality with 

 those sold in Europe, and an extension of the calculation to the whole collection 

 would, quite likely, tend towards a greater equalization of the figures in question. 

 Nevertheless, it will probably be permissible to assume that the price asked does 

 not represent more than about one-half of present market value. Looked at, there- 

 fore, from a mere money point of view, it is evident that the purchase of the collec- 

 tion would be a good investment. For it must be kept in mind that the prices of 

 old prints are going up with alarming rapidity ; and furthermore, that from the price 

 actually named must be deducted the labor and expense of collecting, which, if a 

 collection such as the Sewall were to be made up by purchases in the market, would 

 be an item of very considerable magnitude. 



As, however, the Smithsonian Institution is not a money-making concern, the ques- 

 tion of price, although of great importance, is not the only one, or even the most 

 important, to be considered; and it may therefore be worth while to devote a few mo- 

 ments to the question, whether the purchase of such a collection is in itself desirable ? 



If we are to be led by the example of others, that question must unhesitatingly be 

 answered in the affirmative. All the nations of Europe have considered it necessary 

 to establish national print collections, and to give careful attention to their keeping 

 and continual enlargement. The British Print Room, the "D6partement desEstam- 

 pes" at Paris, the Cabinets at Amsterdam and Brussels, the " Kupferstich-Sammlung 

 der koniglichen Museen " (Print collection of the Royal Museums) at Berlin, the Royal 

 Print Cabinet at Dresden, are all institutions of world-wide celebrity, and the posses- 

 sors of treasures of inestimable value, and of a magnitude that it is difficult to realize. 

 The most extensive among them are the British Print Room, the possessions of which, 

 so far as I know, have never been counted, the French " De"partement des Estampes," 

 Avith something like two and a half millions of specimens, and the collection of the 

 Royal Museums at Berlin, with over one million. Most, if not all, of these public col- 

 lections began by the purchase of private collections such as that made by Mr. Sewall. 

 The practical beginning of the Paris collection dates from the year 1667, when Colbert 

 bought for the state the collection of Michel de Marrolles, Abbe" de Villeloiu, consist- 

 ing of 123,400 pieces for 30,400 livres. The value of this collection was estimated by 

 Henri Delaborde (in his book on the D6partement des Estampes), in 1875, at over one 

 million, and as within the fifteen years which have elapsed since then, the prices of 

 prints have risen enormously, the actual value to-day is much larger. In a similar 



