Collecting & The Wunderkammer. Thomas Windus FSA (1778-1...

Hammer

£8,500

Collecting & The Wunderkammer. Thomas Windus FSA (1778-1854), of Gothic Hall, Stamford Hill, London, antiquarian, an expert on the Portland Vase, and Seneschal in the Noviomagan Society, his own autograph manuscript of his 'museum' collection, Synopsis of the Private Collection of Vertu in the possession of Mr Tho:s Windus  FSA 1819/Gothic Hall/Stamford Hill/January 1st 1825, complete: [3], 70, [4], [1]pp, paginated, blanks 21-22, 42 & 59-67 also paginated, the catalogue comprising antiquities and curiosities, geology and natural history specimens, etc., the Index stating: 'Carvings in Ivory, D:o Mother o'Pearl, Chrystals, Grecian Pottery &c, Gems Rings &c, Silver & Gold Chasing, Carving in Wood, Gothic Furniture, Cabinets &c &c, Porcelain China &c, Coins, Medals &c antique and modern, Ancient & Curious Missals Books &c, Bronzes [...]'; the page following the index stating a collector's woe and destiny: expenditure and a spendthrift; tantalising provenances throughout the collection, including the princely collection of Lucien Bonaparte, the Colonna family of Rome, and others, notes include: 'Lost, stolen or strayed' (multiple times), 'Madame Tussaud has the Watch', 'A highly executed carved Triptich (sic) Altar much admired by Prince Albert', an Apostle spoon claimed - perhaps romantically - to have been Shakespeare's, a volume presented to the College of Arms, etc; the final part comprises a two page account of being an antiquary, another two pages a description of Gothic Hall, its architecture and history, contemporary maroon straight-grain morocco  rolled in blind, the covers with four gilt tooled labels: the elevation of Gothic Hall - designed to house the museum itself, the Windus arms, his entwined monogram incorporating Mannerist figures, the crest to verso, marbled edges and endpapers, the author-collector's armorial bookplate to recto pastedown, printed on lavender paper, loosely-inserted illustrated Victorian periodical article on the collection, another sheet with an engraved elevation of Gothic Hall, 8vo

N.B. On a page-by-page reading, though cited on the 'Index' leaf, the catalogue contains no reference to the Old Master paintings, drawings and other works on paper within the collection of Thomas Windus. Though he clearly intended them to be contained within, they're absent and must have been in another manuscript catalogue (?) as this lot shows no sign of any page having been removed.