Natter S Museum Britannicum British Gem Collections And Collectors Of The Mid Eighteenth Century

This book presents the first comprehensive publication of Lorenz Natter's (1705- 1763) Museum Britannicum, offering full discussion in English and presenting Natter's drawings and comments alongside modern information on the ancient and later engraved gems that can be identified and located through fresh research.

Martin Folkes (1690-1754): Newtonian, Antiquary, Connoisseur is a cultural and intellectual biography of the only President of both the Royal Society and the Society of Antiquaries. Sir Isaac Newton's protégé, astronomer, mathematician, freemason, art connoisseur, Voltaire's friend and Hogarth's patron, his was an intellectually vibrant world. Folkes was possibly the best-connected natural philosopher and antiquary of his age, an epitome of Enlightenment sociability, and yet he was a surprisingly neglected figure, the long shadow of Newton eclipsing his brilliant disciple. A complex figure, Folkes edited Newton's posthumous works in biblical chronology, yet was a religious skeptic and one of the first members of the gentry to marry an actress. His interests were multidisciplinary, from his authorship of the first complete history of the English coinage, to works concerning ancient architecture, statistical probability, and astronomy. Rich archival material, including Folkes's travel diary, correspondence, and his library and art collections permit reconstruction through Folkes's eyes of what it was like to be a collector and patron, a Masonic freethinker, and antiquarian and virtuoso in the days before 'science' became sub-specialised. Folkes's virtuosic sensibility and possible role in the unification of the Society of Antiquaries and the Royal Society tells against the historiographical assumption that this was the age in which the 'two cultures' of the humanities and sciences split apart, never to be reunited. In Georgian England, antiquarianism and 'science' were considered largely part of the same endeavour.

Julian Munby has gained a reputation over half a century in many branches of archaeological and historical knowledge. His lively and warm character and sense of fun has made him many friends who also in some sense feel they are his pupils, and this collection of papers has been assembled as a tribute in honour of his 70th birthday.

At head of title: Comune di Udine. Assessorato alla cultura. Civici musei di storia ed arte, Gabinetto numismatico.

55,000 biographies of people who shaped the history of the British Isles and beyond, from the earliest times to the year 2002.

"This catalogue is the first comprehensive study of the 328 objects that make up this little-known area of the Royal Collection. The ancient gems and intaglios have been catalogued by John Boardman, and although they are few in number, they include the magnificent Claudius cameo that was once in the collection of Charles I. The later, post-Renaissance pieces have been studied by Kirsten Aschengreen Piacenti, and these include the great Tudor portrait cameos, a superb series of Italian sixteenth-century portrait cameos of North Italian 'Beauties', the group of exquisite eighteenth-century Italian carnelians bought by George III from Consul Smith in 1762 and a fine selection of Garter badges, several bearing the signature of the gem-engravers Marchant and Burch." "Close examination by gemmologists has produced an accurate technical analysis of all the stones and settings, and newly commissioned photographs bring out the distinctive features of each piece. Casts are illustrated wherever possible, and close-tip images of signatures, inscriptions and hallmarks support the detailed descriptions in the text. Research into the collection has resulted in new information concerning the mounts of many of the gems, and this is summarised in an illustrated appendix. Also published in full, and for the first time, is the collection of intaglios once owned by Henry, Prince of Wales, which was recorded in a series of wax impressions made by Elias Ashmole at the request of Charles II in June 1660."--BOOK JACKET.