Catalogue of the collection of miniatures : the property of J. Pierpont Morgan, compiled at his request by G.C. Williamson. Supplementary volume, 1932-1933.

ArchivalResource

Williamson, George Charles, 1858-1942. Catalogue of the collection of miniatures : the property of J. Pierpont Morgan, compiled at his request by G.C. Williamson. Supplementary volume, 1932-1933.

Catalogue of the collection of miniatures : the property of J. Pierpont Morgan, compiled at his request by G.C. Williamson. Supplementary volume, 1932-1933.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/201889055

The first supplementary volume is a carbon copy of the text sent to J.P. Morgan, bound by the author for his own reference, and includes mounted photographic and photomechanical prints, some in color. Objects described and illustrated are miniatures, boxes, étuis and nécessaires. Most of the objects are English and include miniatures of Queen Elizabeth, Charles I and Queen Henrietta Maria, Charles II, James II, George III, Washington Irving, James H. Leigh Hunt, Shelley, and Byron; a miniature by Fragonard; fifteen Italian miniatures of the ruling family of Sardinia and members of the house of Savoy; gold boxes decorated by Chardin, Louis Nicholas van Blarenberghe, and Antoine Vestier. Inserted in the volume are the following items: a typescript letter from Williamson to D. Appleton-Century Company (Nov. 10, 1934) concerning a request for copies of the Century magazine containing portraits of Shelley and Byron, and a contents list from the magazine for June 1911 that includes the Shelley portrait owned by Morgan; a manuscript list of fifteen Italian miniatures that were included in the catalog of the sale of Morgan's collection of miniatures in London, June 24, 1935; a photographic print of the miniature of Washington Irving, and a colored photomechanical print of the miniature of Shelley; correspondence between Williamson and C. Jeannerat (July 1939) concerning the identity of various persons depicted in several of the Morgan miniatures; newspaper clippings and correspondence between Williamson and Scotland Yard concerning the theft on July 29, 1939 of seven Italian miniatures, formerly in the Morgan collection, from the country mansion of Geoffrey Hart in Forest Row, Sussex. The second supplementary volume is a carbon copy of the re-typed text that was intended to accompany the hand-colored illustrations for the unpublished fifth volume of miniatures in the Morgan collection. The plates bound with this copy of the text are the only ones in existence and constitute the entire suite of hand-colored illustrations, with one exception, that were to have been published. The author's bookplate is affixed to the inside front cover: From the library of George Charles Williamson, Mount Manor House, Guildford.

2 v. : ill., chiefly ports. (some col.) ; 27-39 cm.

Metropolitan Museum of Art, Thomas J. Watson Library