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Summary
Author: Buchanan, W.
Title: Memoirs of painting, with a chronological history of the importation of pictures by the great masters into England since the French Revolution.
Publication: London, R. Ackermann 1824.
Price: £420
Reference: 06818
Full Description
8vo. 2 vols. xvi + 364pp ; (4) + 397 + (1)pp. Contemporary full calf, all edges gilt, rebacked with matching calf spines, inner joints strengthened with tape. 19th century armorial bookplates of John Webster, also booklabel of Peter and Linda Murray. A few pencil notes in blank margins.
First edition. A key text for the history of picture collecting in Britain between the arrival in London of the collection of the Duc d’Orléans in the 1790s and the aftermath of the battle of Waterloo. Its author, William Buchanan, was one of the leading British dealers in Old Master paintings from 1802 onwards, and his narrative is based on his own personal knowledge, his correspondence with agents in Italy and Spain, and the recollections of friends and colleagues.