Lot Essay
PUBLISHED:
J. Dallaway, Of Statuary and Sculpture among the Antients. With some account of specimens preserved in England, London, 1816, no. 20; A. Michaelis, Ancient Marbles in Great Britain, Cambridge, 1882, p. 26; P. Arndt and W. Amelung, Photographische Einzelaufnahmen antiker Sculpturen, 1893-1943, 3106; C. C. Vermeule and D. von Bothmer, Notes on a New Edition of Michaelis: Ancient Marbles in Great Britain, Part I and II, American Journal of Archaeology, vol. 60, 1956, p. 336; M. Wegner, Boreas 2, 1979, pp. 107-108
The collection of antique sculptures from Marbury Hall in Cheshire was formed by the Hon. James Smith Barry at Rome in 1776. During the second half of the 18th Century, the Grand Tour to Italy was the height of fashion for aristocratic Englishmen, and the wealthy 'Milords' were encouraged to purchase ancient marble sculptures to take back to their country houses as souvenirs of their visit. Most of the sculptures came from excavations in Rome or its neighbourhood, which were acquired from older Italian collections which were now being broken up. The middlemen and agents in this trade tended to be expatriate Britons and, at the time of Smith Barry's visit, the market was domianted by Gavin Hamilton and Thomas Jenkins. It was these two who supplied Smith Barry with his sculptures, originally some forty-five in number
J. Dallaway, Of Statuary and Sculpture among the Antients. With some account of specimens preserved in England, London, 1816, no. 20; A. Michaelis, Ancient Marbles in Great Britain, Cambridge, 1882, p. 26; P. Arndt and W. Amelung, Photographische Einzelaufnahmen antiker Sculpturen, 1893-1943, 3106; C. C. Vermeule and D. von Bothmer, Notes on a New Edition of Michaelis: Ancient Marbles in Great Britain, Part I and II, American Journal of Archaeology, vol. 60, 1956, p. 336; M. Wegner, Boreas 2, 1979, pp. 107-108
The collection of antique sculptures from Marbury Hall in Cheshire was formed by the Hon. James Smith Barry at Rome in 1776. During the second half of the 18th Century, the Grand Tour to Italy was the height of fashion for aristocratic Englishmen, and the wealthy 'Milords' were encouraged to purchase ancient marble sculptures to take back to their country houses as souvenirs of their visit. Most of the sculptures came from excavations in Rome or its neighbourhood, which were acquired from older Italian collections which were now being broken up. The middlemen and agents in this trade tended to be expatriate Britons and, at the time of Smith Barry's visit, the market was domianted by Gavin Hamilton and Thomas Jenkins. It was these two who supplied Smith Barry with his sculptures, originally some forty-five in number