A Descriptive Catalogue Of A Collection Of Paintings By British Artists, In The Possession Of Sir John Fleming Leicester, Bart. By William Carey, Esq.; With Occasional Remarks, &c.By Sir Richard Colt Hoare, Bart. [Epigraph]
London:: Printed By J. Nichols And Son, Red Lion Passage, Fleet Street; And Sold By W. Carey, 37, Mary-Le-Bone-Street, Piccadilly; Payne And Foss, Pall Mall; And Henry Colburn, Conduit-Street., 1819.
Physical Description
xii, 152 p., frontis.; 237 mm. (Octavo.)
Contents
[Frontis., t.p., dedic., dedic.] - [Text] - Appendix - Index To The Painters; Erratum; [colophon].
Responsibility Note
The frontispiece is unsigned.
The printers' name is repeated in the colophon.
The first dedication is from R.C. Hoare to Sir John Fleming Leicester, Bart.; the second is from Wm. Carey to the Noblemen and Gentlemen of the British Institution.
References
P. Cannon-Brookes, Paintings from Tabley [exhibition catalogue] (1989); S. Whittingham, 'A most liberal patron: Sir John Fleming Leicester, Bart., 1st Baron de Tabley (1762-1827)', in Turner stud., 6 (1986), p.24-36.
On Carey see W. Bates, 'William Carey', in Notes and Queries, 4th ser., 5 (1870), p.481-4.
Summary Note
Sir John Fleming Leicester was buying British paintings by 1789; for which he made galleries at Tabley, his house in Cheshire, and at his London house, where they were made accessible to the public from 1818 onwards. He was also active in establishing the British Institution (1805), the Royal Irish Institution (1823) and the Royal Manchester Institution (1825). In 1823 he offered his collection to the British Government to be the foundation of a national gallery of British art, but this was refused. After his death several of his pictures were bought for Petworth, west Sussex.
The catalogue lists works by Atkinson, W. Beechey, F. Bourgeois, Barrett, B. Barker, A.W. Callcott, W. Collins, Coates, Devis, H. Fuseli, Gainsborough, Garrard, H. Howard, W. Hilton, Hoppner, B. Hoppner, Harlow, Ibbetson, T. Lawrence, Loutherbourg, J. Northcote, Owen, Opie, J. Reynolds, Romney, M. Shee, Thomson, Turner, B. West, J. Ward, R. Wilson, Williamson.
The frontispiece shows a top-lit room hung with paintings.
Reproductions
A copy of this book from the Getty Research Institute has been digitised and made available online via the Hathi Trust.
Provenance
A loose slip of paper has been inserted, inscribed in pencil, 'ackd CM VI, 62-4 (14 Apr. 1819)'.
Binding Note
19th-century black morocco, gilt-decorated covers and spine; spine lettered 'Sir John Leicester's Catalogue' and '1819'.
Paintings, British - Great Britain - History
Collections - Great Britain - History - 19th century
Catalogues - Art criticism - Great Britain - 19th century