Sir William Hamilton (1730-1803) and Pierre Francois Hugues d' Hancarville,(1719-1805) . Etruscan Antiquities, Published Naples:by Francesco Morelli, 1766-1767]. Engraving, hand-coloured in red and black.by Hugues d'Hancarville titled Collection of Etruscan, Greek and Roman Antiquities... Antiquités Etrusques, Grecques et Romaines. Tirées du Cabinet de M. Hamilton. Sir William Hamilton was the British ambassador to Naples during the city's golden age, from 1764 to 1800. An avid antiquarian, Hamilton assembled one of the world's finest collections of Greek and Roman antiquities. The core of his collection was bought en bloc from the Porcinari family, after an introduction by Hugues d'Hancarville, an amateur art dealer. Hamilton added several more choice items before selling the entire collection to the British Museum in 1772 for £8400, where it became one of main collections in the department of Greek and Roman antiquities. However, before the collection was shipped to England, Hamilton arranged for Hugues d'Hancarville to oversee the cataloguing and drawing of every item. The published work appeared in 1766-1767 and is a triumphant example of graphic art of the highest order: the present image is one of the results.

In addition to his duties as ambassador, Hamilton was also renowned as a knowledgeable guide and congenial host to the visiting English 'Grand Tourists'. With infectious enthusiasm he would extol the wonders of Naples and the beauties of arts of the ancient world, inspiring in many of his aristocratic visitors a genuine love of the antique. This new-found enthusiasm, fuelled by images such as the present engraving, found its expression in the new style of neo-classicism and in the collections of antiquities which found their way to many of the stately homes of England. These items are framed and £165 each delivered less of course if collected

Outline copper engraved plates of classical antiquities, from Antichita di Ercolano ( 1744 to 17920 ) by Georg Christoph Kilian,1709-1781

Georg Christoph Kilian,1709-1781 followed an apprenticeship with his father with the traditional years of travel, visiting Nuremberg and Hungary and working for a period in Vienna, where he studied the art of the Old Masters. He returned to Augsburg and established himself there, enjoying a high reputation in the literary and artistic circles of his time.

He worked both as a talented artist and as an historian, art collector and biographer of other artists. Apart from his renowned natural history collection, Kilian had a well-chosen art library and above all a comprehensive graphics collection, comprising engravings, woodcarvings and drawings.

He collected in particular the works of his own family. He himself also engraved portraits of his ancestors and family for the collection. The latter, bound in six volumes, now forms an important part of the Augsburg Staats- & Stadtbibliothek, to which he bequeathed it, along with the majority of his collection of 16000 engravings & prints in 1781.

His cartographic works included the Supplement to the Atlas Curieux [1738]; Kleiner Atlas [1757], Kriegs Atlas [1758], Theat. Guerre Allemagne - 61 maps [1760], America Septentrionalis [1760]

Le Antichita di Ercolano (The Antiquities of Heculaneum) was a collection of images of archeological finds from the excavations at the Roman city of Herculaneum. It was published over a 40 year period from 1744 to 1792 as the excavations continued. Many different artists and archeologists of the day worked on it. The Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum were burried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius on the morning of 25 August, 79 AD. It was not until 1709 that the city of Herculaneum was discovered when a peasant digging a well on his property was astonished to uncover large slabs of inscribed marble.

Measurements:. . most plate-mark: 15 3/4" x 11" . . . sheet: 19 1/2" x 14 1/4"

Home

Antiqarian

• Architectural

• Ackermann Aquatints

• Aquatints . .Varley etc

• Buck's Views

• Caldani/Anatomy/ /Icones Anatomicae

• Classical Antiquity

• William Kent/ Architecture

• Johannes Kip. . .Brittania Illustrata,

• Stowe's Survey London

• Houghton Gallery Mezzotints

• Oxford..Almanack.

• Oxonia Illustrata./David Loggan

• Oxonia Depicta. . Williams

• Piranesi. ...Architectural

• Portraits

• Religious ..larger plate

• Westminster. . .Smith

•  Versailles /Lebrun

• Anthony Wood Oxford+
  Loggan Oxonia Illustrata
  +Michael Burghers

• Galerie Du Palais Du Luxembourg/ Rubens

• Sanderus. .Belgium
• 
  

By Artist

• Etchings.

• Francesco Bartolozzi.

• John Sell Cotman..

• Colour Woodcuts . . / Deco

• George Cuitt .

• William Daniell

• Fielding ..Lake District

• William Green of Ambleside.

• James Malton

•  George Morland.

• Pyne Trades/Costume

• J.M.W.Turner..
• 
  

Humour

• Sir Henry Alken+ Sports

• Francesco Bartolozzi.

• W H Bunbury

• Dighton

• Gillray ..Satire

• George Cruickshank

• William Hogarth 

• Humorous.Political.

• John Kay/Edinburgh

•  Rowlandson
• 
  

by Illustrator

• Arthur Rackham

• Randolph Caldecott

• Modern Illustrators  Original Art

• Childrens Illustrators
• 
  

Links to other sites