BOOK III, TORS OF RECENT THE COL- OF SACRA- THE COL acquisitions which were incidental to that campaign. 'Mr. HOLMES, the officer attached to the Abyssinian Expedition by the Trustees of the British Museum '—I quote exactly and literally from the 'Accounts and Estimates' of last year (1869)—'collected . . . among other objects, a silver chalice and a paten bearing Æthiopic inscriptions, showing them to have been given to various churches by King THEODORE.' I am certain to be uncontradicted when I assert, that neither the Trustees of the British Museum, nor Lord NAPIER of Magdala, instructed Mr. HOLMES to take from Christian churches in Abyssinia their sacramental plate, or their processional crosses. It is a far pleasanter task to praise the diligence with which Mr. HOLMES executed the Commission really given him by the Trustees. He collected many specimens of Abyssinian art and industry which were fit contributions to the National Museum. In like manner, Lord NAPIER ABYSSINIAN authorised the collection, partly by officers under his command, and partly by the researches of Mr. HOLMES, of a series of Abyssinian Manuscripts, extending to three hundred and thirty-nine volumes. These were given to the Museum by the then Secretary of State for India. LECTION OF MSS. THE SLADE In the same year with the Abyssinian spoils, came a noble addition to the Art Collections of the Museum by the bequest of the late Felix SLADE, and a rich addition to the Library, by the purchase of the Japanese books collected by the late Dr. VON SIEBOLD, during the later of his two visits to Japan, a country which he so largely contributed to make well known to the rest of the world. Felix SLADE was the younger son of Robert SLADE, in his day a well-known Proctor in Doctors' Commons. Mr. William SLADE, elder brother of Felix, had inherited the Chap. VI. valuable estate of Halsteads in Lonsdale (Yorkshire), under Book III, the will of the last male-heir of that family, and on his early OTHER death he was succeeded by his brother, the benefactor. BENEFAC TORS OF DAYS. Truly a benefactor.' To purposes of public charity he RECENT bequeathed not less than seven thousand pounds, and bequeathed that sum with wise forethought, and with Christian generality of view. He founded and munificently endowed Professorships of Art at each of the ancient Universities, and at University College in London. To the British Museum he gave the splendid bequest about to be described, which had been selected with exquisite taste, knowledge and judgment, and which, under such rare conditions of purchase, had cost him more than twenty-five thousand pounds. I describe it in the precise words-chiefly from the pen of one of his Executors-which are used in the Return to Parliament of 1869:- The collection of glass THE SLADE and other antiquities bequeathed to the Nation by the late ANTIQUIFelix SLADE, Esq., F.S.A., includes about nine hundred and TIES. fifty specimens of ancient glass, selected with care, so as to represent most of the phases through which the art of glassworking has passed. Collected in the first instance with a view to artistic beauty alone, the series has been since gradually enriched with historical specimens, as well as with curiosities of manufacture, so as to illustrate the history of glass in all its branches. 6 Of early Egyptian glass there are not many examples in the collection; one of some interest is a case for holding the stibium, used by the Egyptian ladies for the eye, and which is in the form of a papyrus sceptre. The later productions of Egypt are represented by some very minute specimens of mosaic glass, formed of slender filaments of various colours fused together, and cut into transverse sections. MUSEUM OF 1869. BOOK III, TORS OF RECENT THE COL- OF SACRA- PLATE IN THE COL acquisitions which were incidental to that campaign. 'Mr. I am certain to be uncontradicted when I assert, that neither the Trustees of the British Museum, nor Lord NAPIER of Magdala, instructed Mr. HOLMES to take from Christian churches in Abyssinia their sacramental plate, or their processional crosses. It is a far pleasanter task to praise the diligence with which Mr. HOLMES executed the Commission really given. him by the Trustees. He collected many specimens of Abyssinian art and industry which were fit contributions to the National Museum. In like manner, Lord NAPIER ABYSSINIAN authorised the collection, partly by officers under his comMSS. mand, and partly by the researches of Mr. HOLMES, of a series of Abyssinian Manuscripts, extending to three hundred and thirty-nine volumes. These were given to the Museum by the then Secretary of State for India. LECTION OF THE SLADE In the same year with the Abyssinian spoils, came a noble addition to the Art Collections of the Museum by the bequest of the late Felix SLADE, and a rich addition to the Library, by the purchase of the Japanese books collected by the late Dr. VON SIEBOLD, during the later of his two visits to Japan, a country which he so largely contributed to make well known to the rest of the world. Felix SLADE was the younger son of Robert SLADE, in his day a well-known Proctor in Doctors' Commons. Mr. William SLADE, elder brother of Felix, had inherited the valuable estate of Halsteads in Lonsdale (Yorkshire), under Book III, the will of the last male-heir of that family, and on his early OTHER death he was succeeded by his brother, the benefactor. Chap. VI. BENEFAC TORS OF DAYS. Truly a benefactor.’ To purposes of public charity he RECENT bequeathed not less than seven thousand pounds, and bequeathed that sum with wise forethought, and with Christian generality of view. He founded and munificently endowed Professorships of Art at each of the ancient Universities, and at University College in London. To the British Museum he gave the splendid bequest about to be described, which had been selected with exquisite taste, knowledge and judgment, and which, under such rare conditions of purchase, had cost him more than twenty-five thousand pounds. I describe it in the precise words-chiefly from the pen of one of his Executors-which are used in the Return to Parliament of 1869 :-The collection of glass THE SLADE and other antiquities bequeathed to the Nation by the late Felix SLADE, Esq., F.S.A., includes about nine hundred and TIES. fifty specimens of ancient glass, selected with care, so as to represent most of the phases through which the art of glassworking has passed. Collected in the first instance with a view to artistic beauty alone, the series has been since gradually enriched with historical specimens, as well as with curiosities of manufacture, so as to illustrate the history of glass in all its branches. Of early Egyptian glass there are not many examples in the collection; one of some interest is a case for holding the stibium, used by the Egyptian ladies for the eye, and which is in the form of a papyrus sceptre. The later productions of Egypt are represented by some very minute specimens of mosaic glass, formed of slender filaments of various colours fused together, and cut into transverse sections. MUSEUM OF ANTIQUI 1869. BOOK III. OTHER TORS OF RECENT DAYS. Account of Slade Museum, in the Parlia mentary To the Phoenicians have been attributed the making of many little vases of peculiar form and ornamentation that are met with, not unfrequently, in tombs on the shores of the Mediterranean. They are of brilliant colours, with zigzag decoration, and exhibit the same technical peculiarities, so that they must have been derived from one centre of fabrication. Of these vases there is a considerable series, showing most of the varieties of form and colour that are known. 'The collection is especially rich in vessels moulded into singular shapes, found principally in Syria and the neighbouring islands, and which were probably produced in the workshops of Sidon, but at a later time; possibly as late as the Roman dominion. The Museum Collections were previously very ill provided with such specimens. To the same date must belong a vase handle, stamped with the name of ARTAS the Sidonian, in Greek and Latin characters. 'Of Roman glass there is a great variety, as might be expected from the skill shown in glass-making during the Imperial times of Rome. Large vases were not especially sought after by Mr. SLADE, but two fine cinerary urns may A. W. Franks, be noticed, remarkable not only for their form, but for the beautiful iridescent colours with which time has clothed them. There is also a very fine amber-coloured ewer, with blue filaments round the neck, which was found in the Greek Archipelago; an elegant jug or bottle with diagonal flutings, found at Barnwell, near Cambridge, and a brown bottle, splashed with opaque white, from Germany. Of cut glass, an art which it was formerly denied that the Romans possessed, there are good examples; such, for instance, is a boat-shaped vase of deep emerald hue, and of the same make apparently as the Sacro Catino of Genoa; a Returns of 1869. |
