BOOK III, RECENT Franks, as above. peror KIEN-LUNG, 1736-1796; and several ancient Flemish and Dutch glasses. "By the acquisition of the SLADE Collection the series of ancient and more recent glass in the British Museum has probably become more extensive, as well as more instructive, than any other public collection of the kind, and it will afford ample materials for study both to the artist and the antiquary. 'In addition to his collection of glass, Mr. SLADE has bequeathed to the Museum a small series of carvings in ivory and metal work, from Japan, which are full of the humour and quaintness which characterise the art of that country. 'He has likewise bequeathed to the Museum such of the miscellaneous works of art in his possession as should be selected by one of his Executors, Mr. FRANKS. The objects so selected are not numerous, but include some valuable additions to the National Collection. 'Among them may be noticed the following:-Two very beautiful Greek painted vases, œnochos with red figures of a fine style; these were two of the gems of the DURAND and HOPE Collections successively; also a fine tazza, with red figures very well drawn, formerly in the ROGERS Collection. Two red bowls of the so-called Samian ware, with ornaments in relief; one of them was discovered near Capua, the other is believed to have been found in Germany; an antique hand, in rock crystal, of which a drawing by Santo BARTOLI is preserved in the Royal Library at Windsor, and a small Roman vase of onyx; a panel, probably from a book cover, a fine example of German enamel of the twelfth century, from the PREAUX Collection; a very fine flaskshaped vase of Italian majolica, probably of Urbino ware, and representing battle scenes; three elegant ewers, one of Chap. VI. BENEFAC TORS OF RECENT DAYS. them made at Nevers, another of Avignon ware, and the Book III, third probably Venetian-all three are rare specimens ; an OTHER oval plate of niello work on silver, and a silver plate engraved in the style of CRISPIN DE PASSE; three early specimens of stamped leather work, commonly termed cuirbouilli; a tile from the Alhambra, but probably belonging Franks, as to the restorations made to that building in the sixteenth century. The value of Mr. SLADE's bequest is considerably increased by a very detailed and profusely illustrated catalogue of the Collection which, having been prepared during his lifetime, will be completed and distributed, according to his directions. above. Since the CRACHERODE bequest, which formed the nucleus of the British Museum Print Collections, no acquisition of the kind approaches the bequest of Mr. SLADE in rare and choice specimens of etchings and engravings, wherein nearly every artist of distinction is represented. The collection comprises rare specimens of impressions from Nielli and prints of the School of Baldini; fine examples of some of the best productions of Andrea Mantegna, Zoan Andrea Vavassori, Girolamo Mocetto, Giovanni Battista del Porto, Jean Duvet, Marc Antonio, with his scholars and followers, the master of the year 1466; Martin Schongauer, Israel van Meckenen, Albert Dürer, Lucas van Leyden, Hans Burgmair, Lucas Cranach, Matheus Zazinger, the Behams, Rembrandt, Vandyck, Adrian Ostade, Paul Potter, Karl du Jardin, Jan Both, N. Berghem, Agostino Caracci, Wenceslaus Hollar, Cornelius Visscher, Crispin and Simon de Passe, S. à Bolswert, Houbraken, G. w. Reid, L. Vorsterman, Jacques Callot, Claude Mellan, Nanteuil, George Wille, Faithorne, Hogarth, L. A. B. Desnoyers, F. Returns of Forster, Sir R. Strange, William Woollett, Porporati, in Parlia 1869. BOOK III, BENEFAC TORS OF RECENT THE SPECI- AND BIND ING IN THE LECTION. Pefetti, Pietro Anderloni, Raphael Morghen, Giuseppe MYLIUS, De The specimens of binding from the SLADE Collection (now placed in the Printed Book Department), continues the Report of 1869, are twenty-three in number, chiefly of foreign execution, and afford examples of the style of SLADE COL- PADELOUP, DUSSEUIL, DEROME, and other eminent binders. One of the volumes, an edition of PAULUS gestis Francorum (Paris, 1555, 8vo), is a beautiful specimen of the French style of the period, with the sides and back richly ornamented in the Grolier manner. An Italian translation of the works of Horace (Venice, 1581, 4to), is of French execution, richly tooled, and bears the arms of HENRY III of France. A folio volume of the Reformation der Stadt Nürnberg (Frankfort, 1566), which is a magnificent specimen of contemporary German binding, formerly belonged to the Emperor MAXIMILIAN THE SECOND, whose arms are painted on the elegantly goffered gilt edges. An edition of PTOLEMY'S Geographica Narrationis libri octo (Lyons, 1541, fol.) affords a fine illustration of the Italian style of about that date. The copy of a French translation of XENOPHON'S Cyropædia, by Jacques de VINTEMILLE (Paris, 1547, 4to), appears to have been bound for King EDWARD VI, of England, whose arms and cypher are on the sides, while the rose is five times worked in gold on the back. A volume of Bishop HALL'S Contemplations on the Old Testament (London, 1626, 8vo), in olive morocco contemporary English binding, has the Royal arms in the centre of the sides, and appears to have been the dedication copy of King CHARLES THE FIRST.' It is proposed, concludes the Report, to exhibit some of the most beautiful specimens comprised in Mr. SLADE's valuable donation, in one of the select cases in the King's Library. T. Watts, in Returns, as above. Chap. VI. Mr. SLADE also bequeathed three thousand pounds for BOOK III, the augmentation, by his Executors, of his Collection of OER Ancient Glass, and five thousand pounds to be by them expended in the restoration of the parish church of Thorn- RECENT ton-in-Lonsdale. BENEFAC TORS OF DAYS. JAPANESE TIONS OF Philip VON SIEBOLD was born at Wurtzburg, in February, VONSIEBOLD 1796, and in the university of that town he received his AND HIS education. He adopted the profession of medicine, but COLLEC devoted himself largely to the study of natural history. In 1823-8. the joint capacity of physician and naturalist, he accompanied the Dutch Embassy to Japan in the year 1823. He was a true lover of humanity, as well as a lover of science. Many Japanese students were taught by him both the curative arts, and the passion for doing good to their fellowmen, which ought to be the condition of their exercise and practice. He won the respect of the Japanese, but his ardent pursuit of knowledge brought him into great peril. In 1828 he was about to return to Europe, laden with scientific treasures, when he was suddenly seized and imprisoned for having procured access to an official map of the Empire, in order to improve his knowledge of its topography. His imprisonment lasted thirteen months. At last he was liberated, and ordered to do what he was just about to do when arrested. (SIEBOLD, says his biographer, kam mit der Verbannung davon.) But his banishment was not perpetual. In 1859, he returned. He won favour and employment from the then Tycoon. He returned to his birthplace in 1862, and died there in October, 1866. Of his second library, Mr. WATTS wrote thus:-' The collection of Japanese books was one of two formed by Dr. BOOK III, OTHER TORS OF RECENT VON SIEBOLD during his residence in, and visits to, Japan. The first of these collections, which is now at Leyden, and of which a catalogue was published in 1845, was long considered as beyond comparison the finest of its kind out of Japan and China; but the second, now in the Museum, is much superior. That at Leyden comprises five hundred and twenty-five works, that in London one thousand and eighty-eight works, in three thousand four hundred and forty-one volumes. It contains specimens of every class of literature: cyclopædias, histories, law-books, political pamphlets, novels, plays, poetry, works on science, on antiquities, on female costume, on cookery, on carpentry, and on dancing. It abounds in works illustrative of the topography of Japan, as, for instance, one, in twenty volumes, on the secular capital Yeddo, and two, in eleven volumes, on the religious capital Miaco; collections of views of Yeddo and of the volcano Fusiyama, &c. &c. There are also several dictionaries of European languages, testifying to the eagerness with which the Japanese now pursue that study. The Museum was already in possession of a second edition of an English dictionary published at Yeddo in 1866, in which the lexicographer, HORI TATSNOSKay, observes in the preface, "As the study of the English language is now becoming general in our country, we have had for some time the desire to publish a pocket dictionary of the English and Japanese languages, as an assistance to our scholars," and adds that the first edition is "entirely sold out." These dictionaries may now assist Europeans to study the language of Japan, and it is believed that the Japanese Library now in the Museum will afford unequalled opportunities for the study of its literature.' This was the last sentence in the last official report which Mr. WATTS lived to write, for the purpose of being |