The end wall of a palatial hall with columns supporting an architrave with arches above

Charles Townley first visited Italy in 1768, a journey that ignited his passion as a collector of antiquities. Piranesi, together with Byres, Gavin Hamilton and Thomas Jenkins, was one of his main suppliers. On that first trip Piranesi sold him a pair of Roman altars from the Palazzo Odescalchi, on his second trip in 1772-4, Etruscan vases, and on his last in 1777, a colossal marble head of Hercules found by Hamilton at Hadrian's Villa. Piranesi's series of etchings Vasi, candelabri, cippi, sarcofagi, tripodi, lucerne, ed ornamenti antichi, published in 1778, including vases sold to Townley, was designed to promote the artist's skills as a dealer.