EARLY SALE OF GEMS, DRAWINGS, AND CURIOSITIES.
At the risk of showing my ignorance, I wish to have it removed by answers to my present Queries.
I have before me a printed catalogue of a collection of antiques, drawings, and curiosities, which were to be sold by auction not far from a century and a half ago. It is upon a sheet of four pages, rather larger than foolscap, which it entirely fills. It seems to me a remarkable assemblage of valuable relics, and it is thus headed:—
"A catalogue, being an extraordinary and great collection of antiques, original drawings, and other curiosities, collected by a gentleman very curious ... will be sold by auction at Covent Garden Coffee House, in the Little Piazza, on Wednesday next, being the 9th instant June, 1714."
This is the oldest English catalogue of the kind that I happen to have met with, and my first question upon it is, is there any older? Next, if the fact be known, who was the "gentleman very curious" who owned the collection?
We are farther informed by the auctioneer (whose name is not given), that "The antiques are all in precious stones, most of them engraved by the greatest masters of the old Greeks and Romans; the drawings are of the oldest and the best Italian masters;" and it is advertised, besides, that "the aforesaid rarities may be seen on Monday the 7th, Tuesday the 8th, and Wednesday till the time of sale, which will begin at 11 o'clock in the morning for the antiques, and at 6 o'clock in the evening for the drawings." After a statement that the "conditions of sale are as usual," we come to the list of the gems, under the heads of "Names of the Jewels," and "What they represent." There are fifty-one lots of those that are "set in silver for seals," and they are upon cornelian, beril, sardonix, jasper, &c. For the purpose of identification (if possible) I will quote two or three:—
"3. Sardonix—The head of Anacreon.
17. Cornelian—Pallas crowning Hercules.
30. Beryl—The Trojan Horse, as in Fortuna Lyceto.
51. A cornelian ring, with the head of Lais of Corinth, engraved by Mr. Christian."