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The Marlborough Gems
Formerly at Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire
John Boardman
Diana Scarisbrick, Claudia Wagner, and Erika Zwierlein-Diehl
384 pages
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Numerous colour and black & white photographs and drawings
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276x219mm
978-0-19-923751-7
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Hardback
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29 October 2009
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- Complete documentation and illustration of one of the greatest collections of classical gems
- Fully illustrated in colour throughout
- Specially written essays locate the collection in the culture of its time and trace its later history
The collection of about 800 engraved gems of the Fourth Duke of Marlborough (1739-1817) at Blenheim Palace was the largest and most important of the 18th-century English collections. It comprised a Renaissance collection of the Gonzaga Dukes of Mantua, acquired by Lord Arundel in the mid-17th century; the mid-18th-century collection of Lord Bessborough; and the Duke's own acquisitions in Italy and elsewhere.
The collection was finally dispersed at sale in 1899. The present whereabouts of little over one quarter is now known, while the appearance of less than one third is known from autopsy or
mainly 18th-century drawings. However, the Beazley Archive in Oxford possesses impressions and electrotype copies of virtually every Marlborough gem as well as the cataloguer's notebooks.
This publication presents in full colour all the illustrative material available, from the Archive, from drawings and from autopsy, study, and photography, of the surviving identified pieces. Each is described and discussed, and, in the accompaying text, the evidence for the Mantua collecting and the sources for the later collections are explored, with emphasis on the way the collection illustrates the history of gem-collecting in England, and the reception there of classical iconography which came to be much copied in the 18th century and later in other
media.Readership: Scholars and students of classics, history, history of art, archaeology, history of jewellery; dealers in antique gems.
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John Boardman, Lincoln Professor Emeritus of Archaeology and Art, Oxford University Diana Scarisbrick, Associate Researcher, Beazley Archive, Oxford University, Claudia Wagner, Director of the Gem Program, Beazley Archive, Oxford University, and Erika Zwierlein-Diehl, Emeritus Professor, Bonn UniversityContributors:
Diana Scarisbrick, Claudia Wagner, Erika Zwierlein-Diehl
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"A useful account of elaborate Renaissance and later mounts, which have all too often been removed and discarded, but are useful for identification and dating as well as the history of taste." - Kenneth Lapatin, Times Literary Supplement "A splendid and wonderfully rich volume" - Lucia Pirzio Biroli Stfanelli, Apollo Magazine "The major importance of this book lies in the full catalogue of the collection" - Art Newspaper "compiled and written with great sensitivity by a scholar deeply attuned to the nuances of the collector's world and it will continue to repay frequent and profound study." - Martin Henig, Journal of the History of Collections
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Introduction
I: The Arundel Collection and the Gonzaga Dukes of Mantua
II: The Recording and Sale of the Marlborough Collection
III: The Arundel Collection and Catalogue
IV: The Bessborough Collection and Catalogue
V: The Duke's Gems and Catalogue
VI: Diana Scarisbrick: The Gem Settings
Appendix to Catalogues
Plates
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The specification in this catalogue, including without limitation price, format, extent, number of illustrations, and month of publication, was as accurate as possible at the time the catalogue was compiled. Occasionally, due to the nature of some contractual restrictions, we are unable to ship a specific product to a particular territory. Jacket images are provisional and liable to change before publication.
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