J. M. W. Turner and his World: John Platt (1842-1902), a Late Victorian Extra-illustrator, and his Collection

Felicity Myrone

1. Introduction

In August 2007 the British Library Press Office was able to announce the ‘discovery’ of a ‘missing Constable sketch’.1 This had come to light by chance during cataloguing a few months earlier in an extra-illustrated copy of George Walter Thornbury’s The Life of J. M. W. Turner: Founded on letters and papers furnished by his friends and fellow academicians (London: Hurst and Blackett, 1862). The Constable is just one of over 1,600 additions to Thornbury’s text, collected and inserted by a businessman and justice of the peace from Warrington, John Platt (1842-1902). This essay will briefly examine the collection, its collector and his library. Extra-illustration was a popular activity from the mid-eighteenth to the early twentieth century. It involves the embellishing of an existing text with complementary illustrations and documents.2 Thornbury’s biography of Turner is an excellent choice for extra- illustration, as a large number of Turner’s predecessors and contemporaries are mentioned in the text, as well as places Turner visited and painted. Thornbury’s text also relies on quoting long passages from letters by Turner as well as the writings, letters and reminiscences of his friends and acquaintances or their descendants, and Platt collected manuscript material to match. Most accounts of extra-illustration or ‘grangerization’, as it was often known in the past, have concentrated on the extra-illustrator’s use of portraits and topographical images. However, Platt’s extra-illustrated copy of Thornbury reflects the nineteenth-century practice of inserting autograph materials as well as pictorial illustrations; in 1899, when this collection was bound, autographs were displayed alongside portraits in the National Portrait Gallery,3 and autograph collecting was relatively cheap and therefore popular among the middle classes.4 ‘Autograph fever’ had taken hold of the country, and the dispersal of huge collections such as that of the well-known topographer and autograph collector William Upcott (1779-1845) provided rich pickings. Platt’s extra-illustrated volumes are, accordingly, rich in manuscript materials as well as drawings and prints.

1 A pencil sketch of Hyam Church, Suffolk, thought to date from around 1800. www.bl.uk/news/2007/pressrelease20070823.html. 2 Robert R. Wark, ‘The Gentle Pastime of Extra-Illustrating Books’, The Huntington Library Quarterly, lvi: 2 (Spring 1993), pp. 151-65, provides a useful description of the process. 3 Add. MSS. 54224-54226: ‘National Portrait Gallery Autographs: letters and other documents, formerly exhibited in the Gallery with the associated portraits; early 16th cent.-1909. Mostly autograph. Some French, Italian and Spanish. Arranged in alphabetical order. A number of the items are addressed to Antonio Panizzi, K.C.B. 1869, Principal Librarian of the British Museum. Presented by the Trustees of the National Portrait Gallery, 9 Dec. 1967.’ Also Marcia Pointon, Hanging the Head: Portraiture and Social Formation in Eighteenth-Century England (Newhaven & London, 1993), p. 67. 4 A.N.L. Munby, The Cult of the Autograph Letter in England (London, 1962), p. 83.

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Fig. 1. A selection of the volumes.

No expense has been spared in the presentation of Platt’s collection. He has expanded Thornbury’s two-volume text to thirteen volumes, each bound by Zaehnsdorf in red morocco leather with gilt tooling (fig. 1). The spines are tooled with ‘Life of J. M. W. Turner RA, Turner and his Times/ vol no [ ] / Extra Illustrated / London 1862’, the covers with Platt’s armorial bearings and a decorative border, and the Zaehnsdorf ‘Z’ stamp of a bookbinder at his desk is found inside. The volumes have red silk end leaves, also tooled with John Platt’s armorial bearings, and each volume is given its own slip case with black leather edges. Thornbury’s text has been disbound, with each page inlaid to a folio gilt-edged sheet and rebound with prints, drawings and manuscript material collected to illustrate the people and places mentioned, similarly inlaid and guarded with tissue or cardboard cut to protect sealing wax where appropriate. The original book’s text is outlined in red ink and the insertions in black or red and black (figs 2, 3 & 4).5 Platt gives some of the latter brief explanatory titles in black ink, such as the name, dates and occupation of the person represented and where appropriate their relationship to Turner, and occasionally they are also annotated in pencil with notes such as ‘Watermark of paper is 1822’, ‘Proof ’, or ‘Very Rare Etching’. Insertions are placed as near as possible to the mention of the person or the place represented in Thornbury’s text, the relevant page annotated by underlining the appropriate word in pencil. Platt provides page numbers in pencil on the insertion itself if it is bound a few pages away from the reference, as Thornbury mentions a number of illustratable topics on the same page. He has also written a note in pencil at the close of volume thirteen ‘With very few exceptions the inlaying of both plates, autographs and text has been entirely done by me. John Platt.’

5 The catalogue of Platt’s library (detailed below) includes lot 230 ‘Thornbury (W) Life of J. M. W. Turner, illusts, 2 vols., 8vo, inlaid to folio size and ruled with red, unbound 1862.’

2 eBLJ 2009, Article 8 J. M. W. Turner and his World: John Platt (1842-1902), a Late Victorian Extra-illustrator, and his Collection

Fig. 2. The title page to Thornbury’s text, Tab.438.a.1, vol. 1, f. 47.

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Fig. 3. A receipt dated Oct. 15 1824 for £500 to Sir Walter Scott, Tab.438.a.1, vol. 2, f. 118.

Fig. 4. Tab.438.a.1, vol. 2, f. 118 verso.

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Volume one opens with a manuscript table of ‘Illustrations in the Thirteen Volumes’, written in red and black ink by Platt, who classifies the insertions as Portraits, Views, Autographs, Engravings of Pictures or Original drawings. He calculates the number of each type of insertion in each volume, reaching a total of 1,607 and noting that ‘Of the aforementioned Engravings, 285 are Proofs (207 being India Proofs, and 88 of these Fine India Proofs before letters. There are also 79 Mezzotints, 35 Etchings, and 72 Aquatints, 51 of the latter being Coloured by hand.’ The next page repeats the total number of each type of insertion: 487 Portraits, 424 Views, 407 Autographs, 227 Engravings of Pictures and 62 Original Drawings, and notes ‘the figures in RED in the Index refer to the VOLUME. The figures in BLACK refer to the Number on the right-hand bottom corner of each LEAF.’ (fig. 5).6 Alphabetical indices follow for all the portraits (by person represented) (fig. 6), views (by place represented), autographs (by the author), engravings of pictures (by the artist of the original painting) and original drawings (by artist). The names of artists and engravers of portraits and views, recipients of letters, and engravers of prints are not, however, given indices by Platt. A more detailed index follows for the insertions in volume one only, in a format to be repeated for each volume. After offering the number of insertions of each type for the volume, in this case 48 Portraits, 19 Views, 19 Autographs, 14 Engravings of Pictures and 3 Original Drawings, a total of 103, Platt provides an index to each type with Name, Artist, Description, and Page for portraits, views and engravings, and Name, Date, Description and Page for autographs. Descriptions are simple statements of format – ‘line engraving’, ‘holograph letter’, or ‘autograph letter, signed’ etc. Title pages have also been specially printed for this edition, reading ‘The Life of J. M. W. Turner, R.A. / by Walter Thornbury / With Illustrations relating to TURNER AND HIS TIMES / VOL. I. / LONDON :/ 1862. / Extra Illustrated by John Platt, Llandudno. / 1899.’ Each volume bears an armorial bookplate for the compiler, John Platt of Clifton Lodge, Llandudno7 (fig. 7). This is a woodcut, printed in sepia, showing a lamb outside a gated field of other sheep, holding flowers in its mouth. The same lamb with flowers on top of a helmet is used as the top of a crest to the left, the crest bearing a triangular design with two flowers, three fleurs de lis and a sheep standing in profile to left, with nothing in its mouth. The motto is ‘Neminem metue innocens’ or ‘being innocent fear no one’ on one scroll and ‘ex grege Johannis Platt’ on another, meaning ‘out of the flock of John Platt.’ The whole device is surrounded by ‘mitte domum errantem si qua conspexeris agnum’ or ‘if you see the wandering lamb send it homeward,’ i.e. ‘if you find this book, return it’, and ‘Clifton Lodge, Llandudno’ written on a separate scroll below. It is initialled J. D. B. for the artist John Dickson Batten (1860-1932), a leading contemporary printmaker, and dated ‘Xmas 1892’.8

6 The pages have also been foliated at top right, but Platt’s scheme is used here and on the catalogue record. 7 W. H. Rylands, Grantees of Arms named in docquets and patents between the years 1687 and 1898, preserved in various manuscripts, collected and alphabetically arranged by the late Joseph Foster and contained in the Additional MS no 37,149 in the British Museum, Harleian Society 67, 68 (London, 1916, 1917), lists ‘Platt, John, of Clifton Lodge, Llandudno, N Wales, 1890, vol LXV fol. 207’. 8 Gleeson White, ‘Modern Book-Plates and their Designers’, Winter Edition of The Studio, 1898-99, p. 32. The British Museum, Department of Prints and Drawings, holds an example of this 1892 bookplate in the Franks collection, described in the accompanying catalogue as ‘no. 23696 Platt, Ex Grege Johannis, Xmas 1892 J. D. B. (Batten) pictorial armorial’: Catalogue of British and American Book Plates bequeathed to the Trustees of the British Museum by Sir A. W. Franks, vol ii (London, 1904), p. 448, along with two other examples of bookplates designed for Platt by John Dixon Batten, as part of the artist’s bequest to the Museum. These are dated by the artist 10 May 1894 (1920,1009.19) and 5 May 1895 (1920,1009.18). Both feature ‘Neminem metue innocens’ but are of a simpler design with a shield with a lamb on it and a scroll, and have the wording ‘E Libris Johannis Platt’. See also James Fairbairn, Crests of the Leading Families in Great Britain and Ireland and their Kindred in other lands, fourth edition (London, 1905), p. 448.

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Fig. 5. Platt’s handwritten ‘Index to the Extra-Illustrations in the Thirteen Volumes’, Tab.438.a.1, vol. 1, f. 6.

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Fig. 6. The first page of the basic handwritten index to the insertions across all thirteen volumes, Tab 438.a.1, vol. 1, f. 7.

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Fig. 7. John Platt’s bookplate.

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Platt died in 1902 and these volumes, together with the rest of his collection, passed to his widow, Ellen Jane. She died on 17 May 19199 and bequeathed the extra-illustrated Thornbury to the British Museum, her will dated 27 March 1918 including the clause ‘to the trustees of the British Museum the complete work consisting of thirteen volumes of the life of the late J. M. W. Turner R. A. grangerised by my late husband John Platt of Clifton Lodge Llandudno.’ The Department of Printed Books accepted the bequest, mistaking it as a gift from John Platt rather than his wife, after volume one had been sent as a specimen in July 1919. It is briefly noted in the Department of Printed Books Keepers’ Correspondence, Minutes, Reports and Letters: ‘Presentations & Bequests Oct 4th 1919 [a gift of Siamese postage stamps is outlined] … Mr Pollard10 also submits a very handsomely arranged extra illustrated copy of the life of J. M. W. Turner, bequeathed by the late Mr John Platt of Clifton Lodge Llandudno, forwarded by his (solicitors Ernest E Bone Bone & Son, Llandudno) for the acceptance of the Trustees. As extended by the illustrations the copy is arranged in 13 volumes, & is worth some hundreds of pounds. Mr Pollard recommends that both these gifts be gratefully accepted.’ The Department of Printed Books Register of Donations also notes the bequest on 11 October 1919, with a cross reference to a ‘special report’ by the Keeper [Pollard] ‘item 271 11th October 1919 / Illustrated copy of the life of J. M. W. Turner in 13 volumes. (See special report by ‘the Keeper’). Bequeathed by the late John Platt of Clifton Lodge, Llandudno.’11

Pollard’s typewritten ‘special report’ is tipped into volume one of the collection, and reads

Thornbury (Walter) Life of J. M. W. Turner, R.A. 2 vol. edition, 1862 The whole inlaid to folio size and extra illustrated with 487 portraits, 424 views, 407 autographs, 227 engravings of pictures, 62 original drawings: of the aforementioned engravings, 285 are proofs (207 being Indian proofs, 88 of which are before letters). There are also 79 mezzotints, 35 etchings, and 72 aquatints, 51 of the latter being coloured by hand.12 Extended into 13 volumes, each of which has a copious index of the additions in manuscript. Handsomely bound in red morocco, super extra, top edges gilt, by Zaehnsdorf. Each volume enclosed in a dust-proof case.

Volume two was briefly put on display in the King’s Library as a highlight of the Department of Printed Books’ recent acquisitions. The art journal The Athenaeum reported:

There are now on exhibition in the King’s Library, British Museum, the following recent acquisitions of the Department of Printed Books […]: St Bernard, Sermons in Dutch, Pieter van Os, Zwolle, 1484-85. With a fine woodcut representing the Virgin and Child and St Bernard. – Isidorus Etymologiae, Georg Wolff and Thielmann Kerrver for Jean Petit, Paris, 1499. – Walter Thornbury, Life of J. M. W. Turner, London, 1862. Extra-illustrated by John Platt, Llandudno, 1899, and bequeathed by him to the Museum. In thirteen volumes; the volume exhibited shows the signature of Turner and a number of his fellow-students at the Royal Academy. –

9 Death announcement, The Times (21 May 1919) ‘on 17 May Ellen Jane Platt, widow of John Platt of Clifton Lodge, Llandudno.’ 10 Alfred W. Pollard, Keeper of Printed Books. 11 British Library Archive, DH 53/38. Title: Department of Printed Books: Register of Donations, 12 Oct. 1918-10 July 1920. Description: Page 173 record of bequest with cross reference to ‘special report’ (DH 2/83). 12 This is taken from Platt’s description of the illustrations.

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A collection of Siamese postage stamps formed by the late R.W. Harold Row, Assistant Lecturer and Demonstrator in Zoology at King’s College, and presented to the Museum by his mother in accordance with his wish.13

Despite the size and quality of the collection, and the brief moment it enjoyed in the limelight upon its acquisition, it has received very little attention in the past as a specimen of extra-illustration or even from Turner scholars. This is presumably because it has been difficult to locate. The British Library holds four copies of the 1862 edition of Thornbury’s Life of J. M. W. Turner and this particular, uniquely expanded copy until recently shared a catalogue entry with another, standard edition. Its unusual character was only apparent on investigating why two shelf marks were offered, and noting that the second copy was described as thirteen volumes instead of the usual two. It was given a concise holdings note:

Humanities Tab.438.a.1. [Another copy.] The Life of J. M. W. Turner etc. [To which have been added numerous portraits, views, original drawings by various artists, engravings of pictures, autograph letters, etc. with half-titles printed specially for this copy. A collection formed by Mr. John Platt.] 13 vol. London, 1862. 8º. Each leaf is mounted on larger paper.14

But this is a form of record not searchable by keyword. This may be why the collection is not included in Robin Alston’s Books with Manuscript: A Short Title Catalogue of Books with Manuscript Notes in the British Library, including Books with Manuscript Additions, Proofsheets, Illustrations, Corrections (London: British Library, 1993) or in the authoritative Oxford Companion to J. M. W. Turner by Evelyn Joll, Martin Butlin and Luke Herrmann (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001). The purpose of the present essay is to provide as much detail as is currently available about John Platt and his collecting, and to highlight some of the items of special interest in the collection.

2. John Platt and his collection

The facts of John Platt’s apparently largely uneventful life are few, and can be stated swiftly. Platt was born 20 December 1842 in Middleton, Lancashire, the son of James Platt, a fustian manufacturer. Father and son developed a successful velvet cutting business in Warrington. John Platt married Ellen Jane and later adopted a daughter. When he died in 1902 he appears to have been a wealthy and successful businessman. The rapid growth of the family business can be traced in census records and other sources. James Platt, John’s father, is recorded in the 1851 census simply as a ‘Fustian Cutter and Farmer’ aged 32, born in Rochdale, Lancashire, who ‘Employs 18 hands at cutting and

13 The Athenaeum (2 Jan. 1920), p. 17. The British Museum’s central archive were unable to find any mention of this display, but noted that the Standing Committee agreed on 20 June 1920 a suggestion by Pollard that the majority of the King’s Library’s permanent exhibition of Printed Books should be replaced by a temporary exhibition ‘in connection with the forthcoming conference of Professors of English Literature, to which Colonial and American Professors had been invited as guests of the government’. Pollard suggests in this report, dated 4 June 1920, that ‘it would not be advisable for the exhibition to remain on view for more than a few weeks’ for conservation reasons, so it seems likely that the display of new acquisitions which included the Life of Turner was of a similar length, rather than lasting from Jan-June 1920. Email correspondence with Stephanie Clarke, Archivist & Records Manager, The British Museum, 13-20 March 2007. 14 Recently a set of copy-specific cataloguing guidelines has been drawn up to remedy this situation, and in future information which makes one copy of a book unique will be made available and searchable in clearly defined fields.

10 eBLJ 2009, Article 8 J. M. W. Turner and his World: John Platt (1842-1902), a Late Victorian Extra-illustrator, and his Collection owns 4 acres.’ Lancashire and in particular Oldham were important areas for velvet manufacture from the sixteenth century.15 Fustian was a kind of cotton velvet, and cutting means the production of velvet’s pile. In 1851 James Platt was living with his wife Mary, aged 29, his son John, then aged 8 and described as a ‘scholar at home’ born in Middleton, and a daughter Mary Ann, 3 months. The family lived in the village of Gravelhole, which ‘was for a long time almost the metropolis of fustian and velvet cutting, until the needs of development and expansion made the leaders of the industry migrate to the more rural district of Cheshire and Staffordshire’.16 In 1861, still living in ‘Gravel Hole’, James Platt is described as ‘Master Fustian Cutter (employs 70 hands). Farmer of 12 acres, employs 1 labourer’ and by 1871 he is a ‘Master Fustian Cutter employing 80 hands.’ John Platt, now 28, is himself now described as a ‘Master Fustian Cutter’ and has moved to his own address, in a more middle class area of Warrington adjacent to Gravelhole, ‘1 Wilson Patten Street’, with ‘Ellen Jane Platt, wife, 30, born Liverpool’.17 John Platt’s will, which names his wife as the sole beneficiary, is dated 21 May 1874 and witnessed by a ‘Thomas Gibbons of Lythgoes Lane Warrington Fustian Cutter’ and ‘Thomas Edward Baines of Legh Street Warrington clerk’. The growing number of premises the expanding business needed can be traced in contemporary directories: Worrall’s Directory of Warrington, 1871, lists only the Lythgoes Lane address,18 while Fulton’s Commercial Directory and Shipper’s Guide, 1880, lists six: ‘PLATT JAMES & Son, Lythgoes lane, also at Cockhedge Lane, Turner St, Crossly St, Ellesmere St and Liverpool Road’.19 By 1883, Slater’s Directory of Warrington shows both father and son having moved, and lists ten work addresses.20 John Platt is now living at The Mount, Walton, Cheshire, and subscribes from this address to limited edition books such as C. N. Elvin, A Dictionary of Heraldry with upwards of 2,500 illustrations, 1889 as ‘Platt, John, J.P., The Mount, Walton, near Warrington.’ The business may have branched out into other areas too, as the Cotton Spinners and Manufacturers’ Directory of 1887 lists ‘James Platt & Son, Stiffeners, Peel Road, Liverpool Green’ as silk manufacturers.21 By the 1881 census his business has grown considerably: ‘1 Wilson Patten Street, John Platt, Head, age 38, Master Fustian Cutter, Partner in firm employing 852 hands’, and by the 1891 census John Platt, described as a ‘J.P. and velveteen manufacturer’ and Ellen Jane are registered at ‘Clifton Lodge, 56 Abbey Road, Llandudno’ with domestic staff: a resident cook, waitress and housemaid, and two visitors, one described as ‘Ellen M. Smith, visitor, 6, born Cheshire, Chester’. She is recorded as an adopted daughter in the 1901 census. Clifton Lodge was a ‘Valuable Residential Property Consisting of a spacious Residence, standing in Ornamental Grounds, commanding magnificent views, and suited in every respect for the occupation of a family of position.’22 It is now a Catholic retreat centre.23 He

15 J. Herbert Cooke, The Velvet and Corduroy Industry, A Brief Account of the Various Processes Connected with the Manufacture of Cotton Pile Goods (London, 1922), pp. 6 and 12, p. 44. 16 Ibid, p. 44. 17 Image of Wilson Patten Street from Warrington Library, Museums and Archive: www.1museumstreet.co.uk/wdia/house_health/01a.htm#pat 18 ‘Platt John, fustian cutter (J. Platt & son), 1 Wilson Patten St / Platt James, fustian cutter (Jas Platt & Son), Thornham, Royton, near Oldham / Platt, James & Son, fustian cutters Lythgoe’s lane / Platt John, fustian cutter (Jas. Platt & Son), Arpley villa, Wilson Patten St’ (p. 23). 19 Fulton’s Commercial Directory and Shipper’s Guide (1880), p. 1060. 20 ‘Platt, James, fustian cutter (James Platt & Son), Newlands, Patricroft / Platt, James & Son, fustian cutters and stiffeners, Lythgoe’s Lane; Turner St; Crossley St; Cockhedge Lane; Ellesmere St; Elizabeth St; Cartwright St and Liverpool Road Stiffening Works, Patricroft; Manchester Office, Velvet St, York St. / Platt, John fustian cutter (James Platt and Son), The Mount, Walton, Cheshire.’ 21 Cotton Spinners and Manufacturers’ Directory (Oldham: John Worrall, 1887), p. 123. 22 North Wales Chronicle (Saturday 29 November 1884). 23 See www.llandudno-catholic-church.org.uk/history3.html, accessed 8/1/2007.

11 eBLJ 2009, Article 8 J. M. W. Turner and his World: John Platt (1842-1902), a Late Victorian Extra-illustrator, and his Collection kept working from Wales; Slater’s Directory of Warrington of 1895 includes the company and lists ‘Platt, John, Clifton Lodge, Llandudno’ as one of the Borough Magistrates.24 The Platts appear to have retained their Warrington residence, as it was referred to in Ellen Jane’s will of 1918. Thomas Ellison wrote in the 1880s of the remarkable recent growth in the cotton industry of co-operative or limited liability companies, especially in the neighbourhood of Oldham,25 and John Platt’s business seems to have followed this trend. The family firm was now merged with that of J. and J. Wilkinson, as reported in the Liverpool Mercury of Tuesday 9 November 1897: ‘New Companies’ are described, including ‘Platt, Wilkinson and Co., Limited (54,640) – registered October 30 with capital £50,000 in £10 shares, to acquire the businesses carried on at Warrington by James Platt and Son and by J. and J. Wilkinson, to enter into a certain agreement, and to carry on the business of velvet and velveteen manufacturers, fustian cutters, stiffeners, weavers, spinners &c. The subscribers are – J. Platt, Clifton Lodge, Llandudno, velvet manufacturer, 1 share; W. C. Baines, 24 Cairo Street, Warrington, velvet manufacturer, 1;26 J. Wilkinson, 40, Wakefield Street, Warrington, velvet manufacturer, 1; J. Wilkinson, jun., 58 Hale Street, Warrington, velvet manufacturer, 1; Miss S. A. Wilkinson, 60, Longford Street, Warrington, 1; J. Wilkinson, sen., 60, Longford Street, Warrington, gentleman, 1; T. B. Carter, Eversley, Frodsham, Cheshire, corn merchant, 1. The number of directors is not to be less than three nor more than seven: the first are J. Platt, J. Wilkinson sen., W. C. Baines, J. Wilkinson and T. B. Carter: qualification 100 shares. Registered by Cole and Jackson, 35, Essex Street, Strand.’27 John Platt now had considerable power over the velvet cutting market. He was able to consolidate this further in 1900 by following the trend in various areas in British industry of forming combinations aiming at monopoly. Attempts in 1898 and 1899 to create a Velvet Combine, uniting the Oldham weavers, dyers, cutters and merchants, proved unsuccessful as such divergent interests could not be reconciled. But John Platt was able to become a trustee of a more modest effort which succeeded – the United Velvet Cutters Association, formed in March 1900.28 The prospectus stated the union’s aims: ‘The consolidation of these businesses must reduce unnecessary competition, besides economising working arrangements, which will enable one staff to obtain orders, instead of employing separate ones for each firm, and will effect considerable saving in the collection and re-delivery of goods.’ The four firms involved were the principal ones in the trade, doing three-fourths of the business and employing the majority of the workforce.29 Platt became a Justice of the Peace for Warrington before retiring to north Wales, and died on 7 March 1902 at his home, Clifton Lodge, Llandudno.30

24 Slater’s Directory of Warrington, Wildens, St Helen’s, Earlestown, &c, Manchester (1895-96), p. 3. 25 The Cotton Trade of Great Britain (London, 1968), first edn 1886. 26 William Cannell Baines, b. 1856. Presumably the ‘William Cannell Baines of Lythgoes Lane, Warrington, Managing Director of Company’ who acted as an executor of Ellen Jane Platt’s will. 27 Liverpool Mercury issue 15557. The National Archives have Records of the Board of Trade and of Successor and Related Bodies, including Records of the Companies Registration Office’s Files of Dissolved Companies. No. 54640 Platt, Wilkinson & Company Ltd is listed as dissolved in 1897 (BT 31/7655/54640). 28 Henry W. Macrosty, Trusts and the State, A Sketch of Competition (London, 1901), p. 176. 29 Henry W. Macrosty, The Trust Movement in British Industry: A Study of Business Organisation (London, 1907), pp. 176-7. 30 Death announcements for John Platt, in The Guardian and The Times, 10 March 1902. ‘7th March 1902 at Clifton Lodge, Llandudno, John Platt, JP aged 59’.

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Reports of his death in local newspapers in Wales and Warrington provide some further biographical information:

Death of Mr John Platt It is with much regret which we feel will be shared by many townspeople, that we record the death of Mr John Platt, at his residence, Clifton Lodge, Llandudno, at 8:30 yesterday morning. Mr Platt had been suffering from heart disease, and a recent attack of influenza hastened his death. He came to Warrington in 1868 and opened a factory in Lythgoes-Lane for velvet cutting. His father carried on a similar business elsewhere and the Warrington establishment was opened under the name of James Platt and son. Business rapidly increased and other branches were opened in several parts of the town. Five years ago, the business was amalgamated with that of Councillor Joseph Wilkinson, and the two concerns were carried on under the names of Messrs Platt, Wilkinson and company. More recently still, the businesses had been joined with those of the Velvet Cutters Association. Owing to ill-health, Mr Platt found it desirable to withdraw himself from business cares. Prior to his removal to Llandudno he resided at the Mount, Walton. In politics, Mr Platt was a Liberal. In 1876, he was returned as a representative of the North East Ward on the Warrington Town Council, and was elected an Alderman in 1890.31 About this time he took up his residence in Llandudno, and he finally severed his connection with the Council in 1894. The funeral will take place at Southport on Tuesday.’32

Platt’s funeral is reported in the Warrington and Mid Cheshire Examiner:

The Late Mr John Platt

The Funeral

The funeral of the late Mr Platt took place at Southport Cemetery on Tuesday. The coffin and some of the chief mourners left Llandudno at eight o’clock, and reached Southport Cemetery at midday, being met at the station by a number of friends from Warrington and other places. The Rev. Robert Stephenson, vicar of St James’s Birkdale, officiated, and the internment took place in the grave where the deceased’s father, Mr James Platt, of Newlands, Patricroft, and also his mother, lie buried. The mourners included Mr Robert Shepherd and Mr John Shepherd, Congleton (uncles); Mrs Widdows, Lyttham (sister); Miss Nellie Platt (daughter);33 Miss MacGlashan;34 Nurse

31 According to the Victoria County History for Warrington, ‘In 1832 the town became a parliamentary borough under the Reform Act, returning one member; and in 1847 it was incorporated, and has since been governed by the council … the manorial rights, including the market tolls, were purchased by the corporation. The municipal boundary at first included only about half the area of the township …The boundary was extended in 1890, and again in 1896; it now includes all the ancient township of Warrington (except Orford) and Latchford as far south as the Manchester Ship Canal. In 1890 the enlarged town was divided into nine wards, [Town-hall, Bewsey, Fairfield, Howley, Orford, Whitecross, St. Austin’s, St. John’s, Latchford] each with an alderman and three councillors. The gas and water supplies are in the hands of the council, which has also instituted an electric light and power supply, and an electric tramway service. Baths, gymnasium, and other useful and necessary institutions have been established.’ William Farrer and J. Brownbill, ‘Townships: Warrington’, A History of the County of Lancaster, vol. iii (1907), pp. 316-24. 32 Warrington and Mid Cheshire Examiner (Saturday 8 March 1902). 33 Adoptive daughter Ellen Jane Smith, born c. 1885. 34 Named as a governess in the 1901 census.

13 eBLJ 2009, Article 8 J. M. W. Turner and his World: John Platt (1842-1902), a Late Victorian Extra-illustrator, and his Collection

Cuddy, Southport; Miss Shepherd (cousin); Mr P. Eastwood (cousin); Mr Shepherd (cousin); Mr J. B. Meanock, Royton; Mr Charles and Miss White, Warrington; while representing the firm of Platt, Wilkinson & Co Limited were Mr W. C. Bains,35 Mr G. H. Mason, Mr John Wilkinson, Mr Joseph Wilkinson, and Mr A. J. Partington, all of Warrington.

The coffin, which was a massive one, with brass mountings, bore the simple inscription ‘John Platt, born December 20th, 1842, died March 7th, 1902’. On it were placed a number of beautiful floral tributes which had been sent by the following relatives and friends – Nellie, Emily and Edith, Marjorie, Mrs Henry S. Hall, Southport; Mr and Mrs Adolpe C. Meyers; Mr and Mrs Joseph Broome, Llandudno; T. and M. Smith; Mr and Mrs Whittaker, Birkdale; E. J. Whitby; Dr and Mrs Thomas Dalton, Llandudno;36 Mr and Mrs S. Chamberlain, Plas Brith; Mr and Mrs Edward W. Johnson, Llandudno; Mrs Healey, Felsberg, Llandudno; the Misses Champneys, and the maids at Clifton Lodge.

The funeral arrangements were in the hands of Messrs Thorpe & Sons, Llandudno.37

This edition also includes a ‘Magisterial Reference’:

At the conclusion of the usual business at the Warrington Police Court on Monday, the Chairman (Mr T. Birchall) said that the Court ought not to adjourn without an expression of their deep regret upon receiving the intelligence last week of the death of one of their colleagues, Mr John Platt. It was true that on account of his residence at Llandudno he had not given much active service in the court for some time, but he was a man who was very much esteemed in Warrington and would, had his health permitted his residence in the town, have done good public service. He was sure they all regretted his death very much and would desire to express their kindly sympathy with his family.38

The Llandudno Advertiser, Friday 14 March 1902, reported:

Death of Mr John Platt

The death of Mr John Platt, of Clifton Lodge, Llandudno, came as a surprise to his many friends. For some time Mr Platt has not enjoyed very robust health, owing to a weak heart, but it was not anticipated that he was so near his earthly end until a short time before death actually took place early on Friday morning last. A week previously he had been out and caught a slight chill which caused serious developments. The deceased gentleman, who was 59 years of age, was a partner in Platt Brothers, of Warrington, one of the largest manufacturing firms of velveteen and other similar goods in Great Britain. For that town he was also a Justice of the Peace and a liberal supporter of many philanthropic movements. He took a great interest in the RSPCA and held the post of secretary in the North Wales branch for a number of years.39

The funeral took place on Tuesday at Southport.40

35 William Cannell Baines is named as a trustee of Ellen Jane Platt’s will. 36 Thomas Dalton is named as a trustee of Ellen Jane Platt’s will. 37 The Warrington and Mid Cheshire Examiner (Saturday 15 March 1902). 38 Ibid. 39 The North Wales Chronicle (8 December 1900) reports that the RSPCA’s annual general meeting was held at the secretary’s house, Clifton Lodge, Llandudno, and that Mrs Platt held a drawing room sale for the charity. 40 Llandudno Advertiser.

14 eBLJ 2009, Article 8 J. M. W. Turner and his World: John Platt (1842-1902), a Late Victorian Extra-illustrator, and his Collection

This obituary confuses John Platt with a namesake – an easy mistake as Platt was the most common name in Oldham in 1881.41 John Platt MP (1817-1872) of Oldham, Lancashire also worked in the textile industry and owned property in north Wales (the Gorddinog estate, Aber, Caernafonshire, which remained in the family until 1956). His family firm, Platt Brothers, was the largest employer in Oldham and the largest maker of cotton machinery in Lancashire, but appears to bear no relation to James Platt & Son, Platt, Wilkinson & Company or the United Velvet Cutters Association. He was Mayor of Oldham in 1854-5, 1855-6 and 1861-2, and had a son John Harold Platt 1855-1912 who became a JP and deputy lieutenant for Kent and JP for Anglesey.42 John Platt’s death was also announced in The Guardian and The Times on 10 March 1902: ‘7th March 1902 at Clifton Lodge, Llandudno, John Platt, JP aged 59.’

John Platt’s collections

Platt had died a wealthy man, leaving £47,282 5s 5d,43 and at Ellen Jane’s death the Platt estate was valued at £64,057 4s 2d.44 The couple’s extensive collections of engravings, paintings, porcelain and books were then sold off at a series of auctions in 1919-1920. Their paintings were sold as lots 121 to 142 of Modern Pictures and Water Colour Drawings, the property of the Rt Hon Earl Brassy, [and] Mrs E. J. Platt Deceased, late of Clifton Lodge, Llandudno, also Modern Pictures & Drawings from other sources, Christie, Manson & Woods, 28 November 1919 (the other sources were F. Brett, Lady Galway, F. Walton, H. Beaumont and Mrs Reckitt).45 This sale is recorded in A. C. R. Carter, The Year’s Art 1921, which provides details of properties which have realized more than £1,000: ‘Through the usual courtesy of Messrs Christie, Manson, and Woods, the following totals of the amounts realized by named properties over £1,000 from November 4 1919 to July 23 1920 are given [...] November 28 Modern Pictures and Drawings Mrs E J Platt, deceased, £1,923’.46 A high price was realized for lot 123 Gathering Buttercups, by Myles Birket Foster (1825-1899), described as exhibited at Liverpool in 1893, which sold for £1,050 to ‘Sampson’. This watercolour and bodycolour, measuring 79 x 68cm, was recently sold at Christies in British Works on Paper, 7 June 2001, for £97,250.47

41 www.nationaltrustnames.org.uk accessed 16/02/09. 42 See D. A. Farnie, ‘Platt family (per. c. 1815-1930)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (hereafter ODNB) (Oxford, 2004); online edn, May 2008 [www.oxforddnb.com], accessed 7 May 2009] and articles cited there. 43 The National Archives holds the wills: ‘Platt, John of Clifton Lodge, Llandudno died 7 March 1902. Probate London 9 May to Ellen Jane Platt widow. Effects £47477 5s 5d. Resworn April 1903 £47282 5s 5d.’ 44 The National Archives: ‘Platt, Ellen Jane of Clifton Lodge, Llandudno, Caernarvonshire widow died 17 May 1919. Probate Bangor 16 August to Thomas Dalton MD and William Cannell Baines managing director of company. Effects £64057 4s 2d. Further grant 19 February 1920.’ 45 Thanks to Marijke Booth, Archives Assistant, Christie, Manson & Woods Ltd for identifying the ‘other sources’. Lugt 79614. Advertised in The Times (Tuesday, 18 Nov. 1919), p. 24; Issue 42260; col A as Tuesday, Nov. 18, 1919; pg. 24; Issue 42260; col A. 46 A. C. R. Carter, The Year’s Art 1921, A Concise Epitome of all matters relating to the arts of Painting, Sculpture, engraving and architecture and to the schools of design which have occurred during the year 1920, together with information respecting the events of the year 1921 (London, 1921), pp. 291-2. 47 See www.christies.com/LotFinder/lot_details.aspx?from=salesummary&intObjectID=2067996&sid=656a3048- 90f9-4099-ac50-234342bdd59a

15 eBLJ 2009, Article 8 J. M. W. Turner and his World: John Platt (1842-1902), a Late Victorian Extra-illustrator, and his Collection , watercolour and ink, 264 x 376 mm, Tab 438.a.1, vol. 3, f. 10. 3, f. 438.a.1, vol. Tab and ink, 264 x 376 mm, , watercolour Oxford Paul Sandby (1731-1809), Sandby Paul Fig. 8. Fig.

16 eBLJ 2009, Article 8 J. M. W. Turner and his World: John Platt (1842-1902), a Late Victorian Extra-illustrator, and his Collection , pencil and watercolour; 112 x 159 mm, Tab 438.a.1, vol. 3, f. 44. 3, f. 438.a.1, vol. Tab 112 x 159 mm, , pencil and watercolour; Ouse Bridge, York Ouse Bridge, Francis Nicholson (1753-1844), Francis Fig. 9. Fig.

17 eBLJ 2009, Article 8 J. M. W. Turner and his World: John Platt (1842-1902), a Late Victorian Extra-illustrator, and his Collection

A mixed sale including Platt’s engravings and drawings was advertised in The Times Monday 5 January 1920 as:

ENGRAVINGS including the Collection formed by the late John Platt, Esq., of Warrington, removed from Clifton House, Llandudno. PUTTICK & SIMPSON Will SELL by AUCTION, at their house, 47, Leicester Square, W.C.2, on Friday, January 16th, at 10 minutes past one precisely. ENGRAVINGS as above, comprising fancy subjects of the XVIIIth century British and French Schools by and after Adam Buck, W. Hamilton, Lawrence, H. Bunbury, F. Wheatley, A. Cardon, F. Bartolozzi, N. de Launay, J. R. Smith, &c, Stable and Rural Scenes by J. R. Smith, J. Barney, C. Joel, J. Young after G. Morland and F. Wheatley, many printed in colours, portraits after Sir Joshua Reynolds, Sir Thos. Lawrence, Sir H. Raeburn, &c, by C. Turner, S. Cousins, and many others, mostly in fine condition, naval, military and historical subjects, scarce hunting, coaching and shooting scenes, caricatures, rare American and other views, fashion plates, scrap books, illustrations to Boydell’s Shakespeare, etchings by the Early Masters, watercolour drawings etc.48

His collection accounts for lots 1-116 out of 363. They realized £367 8s and included topography and portrait engravings, aquatints and a large collection of mezzotints, with sections of the catalogue devoted to Reynolds and Lawrence. Platt’s collection of decorative art featured in the Catalogue of Decorative Furniture and Porcelain from various sources and porcelain the property of Mrs E. J. Platt, deceased; late of Clifton Lodge, Llandudno (sold by Order of the Executors), Christie, Manson & Woods, 19 February 1920. Lots 1-23 were Platt items, which made £277. The designated sale of John Platt’s library was held at Puttick and Simpson on 1 and 2 January 1920. The Catalogue of the Late John Platt Esq., J.P., Removed from Clifton Lodge, Llandudno, gives an idea of the scope of Platt’s interests and his dedication to extra-illustration:49

Comprising Collections of the Works of Turner, Ruskin, Kate Greenaway, Hugh Thomson, Richard Jeffries, Dr. T. F. Dibdin, etc, in first and rare editions – Works in Lancashire and Cheshire topography – The Sporting Novels of R. S. Surtees, First Illustrated Editions – Engravings from the Works of Sir Joshua Reynolds and Sir Thomas Lawrence, selected proofs – Turner’s Liber Studiorum etc.; Lilford’s Birds, 7 vols., bound by Fazakerley – Sowerby’s English Botany, third edition, bound by Zaehnsdorf – Extra-illustrated and Choicely Bound Works, including Dibdin’s Bibliomania, extended to 4 vols., and Reminiscences of a Literary Life, extended to 9 vols. – Life and Correspondence of Sir Thomas Lawrence, extended to 13 vols., quarto – Memoirs of William Collins R.A., extended to 9 vols., folio – Leigh Hunt’s The Town and A Saunter Through the West End, extended to 14 vols. – Laughton’s Nelson and his Companions in arms, extended to 6 vols., and including 14 autograph letters of Nelson and three of Lady Hamilton etc., etc.

The marked-up copy of the catalogue in the British Library records the bidders pre-sale and those who won, and indicates that the sale of the library realized £3,741 13s 6d. Several bids are placed before the sale by a ‘J. Smith’ and a ‘Ward’, and the majority of the lots won by ‘Cubitt’.

48 Also advertised in The Times on 22 December 1919 and 5 January 1920. See Catalogue of Engravings and Drawings including the collection formed by the late John Platt, Esq., Removed from Clifton Lodge, Llandudno, Puttick and Simpson, 16 January 1920. 49 The Times initially advertised ‘THE VALUABLE LIBRARY OF BOOKS formed by the late John Platt, Esq., of Llandudno, on October 22nd and 23rd’ but this must have been postponed, as no sale took place.

18 eBLJ 2009, Article 8 J. M. W. Turner and his World: John Platt (1842-1902), a Late Victorian Extra-illustrator, and his Collection

The library sale received coverage in the national press. The Times reported:

First Book Auction for 1920. £300 for ‘The Nelson Memorial’.

The first book auction sale of the new year was the library of the late Mr John Platt, J.P., of Clifton Lodge, Llandudno, dispersed on Wednesday and yesterday by Messrs. Puttick and Simpson. High prices were realized for ‘Grangerized’, or extra- illustrated, books, of which the late owner had many interesting examples.

The finest specimen of this kind of book-making was the copy of J. K. Laughton’s ‘The Nelson Memorial,’ 1896, one of 100 copies on large paper, extended to six volumes quarto by the addition of 277 portraits, 194 views, eight original drawings, three autographs of Lady Hamilton, and 14 of Nelson. The whole was bound in dark blue morocco. This fine set was bought for £300 by Mr Cubitt, who also purchased for £64 Mahan’s ‘Life of Nelson’, 1897, extended to four volumes by the addition of over 500 portraits, autographs, views, and maps.

A copy of Williams’s ‘Life and Correspondence’ of Sir T. Lawrence, P.R.A., 1831, extended from two to 13 volumes by the addition of 14 original drawings, 148 autographs, 338 engravings after Lawrence’s pictures, 513 portraits, and 298 views, realized £240 (Cubitt). Leigh Hunt’s ‘The Town,’ 1848, extended from two to ten volumes and illustrated with 740 portraits and 274 views, sold for £88 (Cubitt). A similarly treated copy of the same author’s ‘Saunter through the West-end,’ 1861, with over 350 portraits and views, went for £51 (Gregory). Other prices realized were: – Dr. Doran’s ‘Their Majesties’ Servants’, 1864, in six volumes, with numerous portraits, scenes, view, playbills, and autographs, – £81 (Gregory); T. F. Dibdin’s ‘Reminiscences of a Literary Life’, 1836, extended to nine volumes by the addition of 556 portraits, 262 views, and 63 autographs – £74 (Cubitt); and a set of Turner’s ‘Liber Studiorum’ – £205 (Cubitt).50

Book Prices Current for 1920 also records Platt’s library sale, and notes ‘more books of a very special and costly character appear to have come into the market during the last twelve months than is usually the case, and the prices realised for works of this exclusive character are certainly higher than they have hitherto been.’51 The catalogue has detailed descriptions for the 594 lots, and shows Platt’s interest in British art, illustration and topography. There is a concentration on artists’ biographies, published collections of engravings, and portfolios and parcels of prints, drawings and autographs as well as a further forty-three examples of extra-illustration. The most important of these, as highlighted in contemporary reports, was the extra- illustrated Nelson Memorial. This was given a detailed description as lot 481 in the catalogue:

Laughton (J.K.) The Nelson Memorial. Nelson and his Companions in Arms, photogravures and woodcuts, First edition, one of 100 L.P. copies, extended to 6 vols., and illustrated by 8 original drawings, 146 autographs, 277 portraits, and 194

50 The Times, Saturday 3 Jan. 1920, p. 13. 51 Book Prices Current, vol. xxxiv (London, 1920), p. vii; ‘Sale Jan 1-2 Library of the late Mr John Platt, of Llandudno. Amount realized £3,741. 13s. 6d.’, p. ix.

19 eBLJ 2009, Article 8 J. M. W. Turner and his World: John Platt (1842-1902), a Late Victorian Extra-illustrator, and his Collection

views, including 91 proofs (40 of them being India proofs, 12 mezzotint ports, 63 aquatints, and 48 prints coloured by hand, ten of the reproductions of the engravings issued with the book have been replaced by first impressions of the original engravings, dark blue mor. extra, arms on sides and crest on backs, leather joints, watered silk linings, t.e.g. by Zaehnsdorf, 1896, 4to. There are three autographs of Lady Hamilton, and 14 of Nelson, and in one case both have written on the same sheet, to William Beckford, vol. III p. 14, a splendid letter. There are also 75 different portraits of Nelson and 38 of Lady Hamilton.

It was sold in 1920 for £300 to Cubitt, and recently changed hands at Christie’s New York, in Fine Printed Books and Manuscripts Including Americana, 16 December 2004, lot 594, for $150,000.52 The collection was presented in a similar manner to the extra-illustrated Thornbury, with carefully prepared manuscript indices in red and blue inks and the extra- illustrations neatly inlaid to size. The Christie’s catalogue fully describes each insertion, and summarizes ‘A most exceptional example of extra-illustration that brilliantly encapsulates Nelson’s meteoric career and the momentous clashes of the Napoleonic era in a dazzling collection of engravings, aquatints, original sketches and, most notably, a highly important series of original letters and documents of Nelson, the Hamiltons, fellow naval officers, associates, foes and contemporaries. An astounding collection, assembled before 1901, that would certainly be impossible to duplicate today.’ Platt’s extra-illustrated copy of the Memoirs of the Life of William Collins by his Son, lot 581, was sold to Cubitt for £98 in 1920, and resold at Fine Books and Manuscripts Including Important Americana, Sotheby’s New York, 13 June 1991 for $4,500. It is described in the Sotheby’s catalogue as lot 22:

Collins, Wilkie. The life of William Collins, Esq. R. A. By His Son. London: Longman, Brown, Green and Longmans, 1848. 2 volumes extended to 9, the original 3 8vo two-volume set disbound and the leaves inlaid in larger sheets (9 ⁄4 x 13 in.; 247 x 330 mm), extra-illustrated by John Platt with over 850 items, additional printed half- titles and titles (dated 1894) and calligraphic indices supplied by Platt. Full green morocco, gilt-ruled and with Platt’s coat-of-arms on the front and rear covers, top edges gilt, gilt dentelles, red moiré silk endleaves gilt-stamped with Platt’s armorial seal, by Zaehnsdorf, 1896; spines trifle faded, some wear, mostly to extremities.53

The catalogue lists some of those represented by autographs and drawings, including Coleridge, Wilkie Collins, David Wilkie,54 Henry Fuseli, Thomas Lawrence and Benjamin West. The provenance is cited as John Platt and ‘Frederick S. Peck, with his armorial book plate in each volume.’ Frederick S. Peck (1868-1945?) was a politician and amateur book and manuscript collector from Rhode Island.

52 See www.christies.com/LotFinder/lot_details.aspx?from=salesummary&intObjectID=4467979&sid=6cc1d899- 84d6-4bd9-94b9-933cf36f7122 53 The catalogue continues ‘Outstanding among the many autograph letters is the fine Coleridge ALS [autograph letter signed] (dated 8 October 1818, to an unidentified recipient) of approximately 275 words, which begins “Mrs Gillman commands me (for Ladies’ requests are equivalent to commands) to take my pen and thank you in her name and her Lord’s for the Goose. But I being in a rebellious mood replied first, that the Goose was of age, and might thank you for himself, secondly that it was an affront to a high-flying poetico- philiosophic Spiritualist, like myself, to suppose him capable of appetites and recollections so terraneous and anserine”’. 54 The Platt library sale also includes lot 454 ‘Album, containing 78 orig. drawings by Sir D. Wilkie and W. Collins, mor.’

20 eBLJ 2009, Article 8 J. M. W. Turner and his World: John Platt (1842-1902), a Late Victorian Extra-illustrator, and his Collection

Other extra-illustrated books are also given detailed descriptions in the Puttick and Simpson catalogue, presumably copying similar Platt’s manuscript indices, so more may come to light in the future.55 His lot 211 ‘Hammill (Miss, of Cheltenham) Diary of Travels Wales and Ireland, MS, illustrated with 47 ports, and plates, and 20 original drawings, panelled calf, 1828-9’, is now traceable to the National Library of Ireland, listed as a 1997 accession.56 The Puttick and Simpson catalogue does not mention Platt’s bookplate, but it too can be used to identify his works as they change hands now: one of Platt’s copies of Thomas Dibdin’s Bibliophobia, lot 342: ‘Bibliophobia, by Mercurius Rusticus, L.P., bds, side paper label, with author’s A.L.S. and present. inscription 1832’, sold to Cubitt for £3 5s was sold at Swann Auctions on 19 April 2001 as lot 49 for $700, described as having the bookplate of John Platt of Clifton Lodge, Llandudno, inscribed ‘John Rawlinson, Esq. From Mercurius Rusticus’ with a handwritten key to pseudonymous characters in the book and an autograph letter reading ‘My dear Sir Finding that I have no copy of the Bibliophobia upon small paper, I shall be forced to compel you to put up with a large paper copy of that capricious but original performance. It was written – ‘calamo currentissimo.’ Yours from TFD’ laid in. However, it is worth being cautious about attributions: Bonham’s San Francisco sale of Fine Books and Manuscripts, 15 February 2009, included lot 1065 a copy of Charles Dickens’s Oliver Twist; or, The Parish Boy’s Progress. London: Richard Bentley, 1838 with the ‘Bookplate of John Platt on front pastedowns.’ I contacted Bonham’s and asked for an image of the bookplate in question, and Adam Stackhouse and Catherine Williamson kindly sent me an image of an armorial plate by Charles William Sherborn lettered ‘Virtute et Labore’, the motto of the textile machine manufacturing family of Platts, so a descendant of John Platt (1817-1872).57 The library sale also includes art, such as lot 254: ‘Herdman (Wm) A Collection of 46 Watercolour Drawings of named places in the vicinity of Liverpool, on sunk mounts, contained in half mor. box, with lock and key 1862-9’ which sold for £38 to Spencer;58 or lot 514, a set of ‘nineteen drawings by W. H. Bartlett in Egypt and Palestine mounted in a half morocco oblong album, from the collection of James Virtue, the publisher’, sold for £42 to Cubitt. J. M. W. Turner was represented by several lots,59 with 548 the set of Liber Studiorum highlighted as sold for £205 to Cubitt by The Times, ‘detailed with the state of each plate given in roman figures after its title, according to Rawlinson’, and with five plates from the artist’s collection, with his mark. The whole collection of 75 prints and 13 original blue paper wrappers with Turner’s initials were ‘uniformly mounted and contained in two

55 For example lot 472 ‘Lawrence (Sir T.) Life and Correspondence, by D. E. Williams, 3 ports, 2 vols, FIRST EDITION, 8vo, inlaid to quarto and extended to 13 vols, with specially printed titles, and illustrated by 14 original drawings, 148 autographs, 338 engravings after Lawrence’s pictures, 523 portraits, and 298 views etc., including 60 mezzotints and 264 proofs, mor. super extra, arms on sides, and crest on backs, leather joints, watered silk linings, each plate guarded throughout, t.e.g., in cloth cases, by Zaehnsdorf, 1831’, sold for £240 to Cubitt in 1920. 56 MS. 34290: ‘Diary of travels in Wales and Ireland / by Miss Hammill of Cheltenham ; illustrated, 1828-1829, by Hammill Miss, of Cheltenham. 1828 Aug. 14-26: North Wales, Dublin and Wicklow; 1829 May 5-June 8: Cheltenham and vicinity; 1829 Aug. 18-22: North Wales. With armorial bookplate of John Platt’. 57 Listed as for 1904 in Charles Davies Sherborn, A Sketch of the Life and Work of Charles William Sherborn, Painter-Etcher, with a catalogue of his bookplates (London, 1912), p. 91. 58 See Kay Parrott, Pictorial Liverpool: The Art of W. G. and William Herdman (Liverpool, 2005). William Herdman (1829-1878) published Views in Modern Liverpool in 1864 with 37 chromolithograph plates. The extra-illustrated Thornbury contains a drawing of Paul’s Cathedral by his father W. G. Herdman (vol. 8, f. 18), and a letter to W. G. Herdman from Thomas Miles Richardson dated 20 Nov. 1845 (vol. 5, f. 96). 59 104, 205, 214, 230, 231, 448, 451, 454, 465, 474 to 476 and 538, 545-6, and 548 to 565.

21 eBLJ 2009, Article 8 J. M. W. Turner and his World: John Platt (1842-1902), a Late Victorian Extra-illustrator, and his Collection morocco cases with watered-silk lining, locks and keys.’ Other artists are represented by extra-illustrated books, collections of engravings and key secondary sources, particularly Thomas Lawrence, Joshua Reynolds, John Constable and John Ruskin. Platt also appears to have been amassing large numbers of prints and autographs, perhaps towards current or future extra-illustration projects, for example: lot 260 ‘Artists. A large collection of Autographs of eminent British artists, including portraits, engraved examples of their work, etc. etc., arranged. (6 parcels)’. The case of the British Library’s Thornbury illustrates the difficulties involved in tracing extra-illustrated materials back to their original sources, with collections being repeatedly broken up and resold, and some prominent collectors forgotten by history altogether. For example Platt’s Thornbury includes materials formerly owned by John Thomas Smith (1766-1833), Keeper of Prints and Drawings at the British Museum. Although he held an important position in the art world and actively promoted print and autograph collecting by referring to the practice in his writing and marketing his own publications as suitable for extra-illustration60 this aspect of his career appears to have been overlooked.61 An etching in the Platt collection at Vol. 6, f. 24 by Francis Hayman of Sir John Falstaff seated on a drum (fig. 10) is listed by John Platt as both a unique etching and as an autograph of Benjamin West dating from 1770. It is inscribed by West ‘etched by Francis Hayman 1755 and presented by him to Benjn West in 1770. there not being more of them ever printed’. Platt does not record the provenance of the etching, but it is possible to trace it from Benjamin West through his wife to J. T. Smith, who mentions it in Nollekens and his Times (London, 1828).62 The extra-illustrated Thornbury also includes a letter from artist Thomas Malton (1748-1804) to William Anderson (1757-1837), marine artist, annotated by Smith ‘Given to me by Mr Anderson the marine painter J. T. Smith’ at vol. 2, f. 97, and a pencil sketch by John Jackson (1778-1831) of George Clint (1770-1854) dated 15 August 1822 with a note ‘Dear Smith – Pray accept this sketch for your catalogue. Mr Jackson was kind enough to do it for me. Yours very truly G. Clint Dec 8 1824’ (vol. 8, f. 100). If this Smith was J. T. Smith, the ‘catalogue’ would have been a set of extra-illustrated Royal Academy catalogues, described from lot 217 of ‘A very curious and interesting COLLECTION of PRINTS, ETCHINGS, DRAWINGS, and AUTOGRAPHS, to ILLUSTRATE the ROYAL ACADEMY, and other EXHIBITION CATALOGUES of LONDON, from the year 1760 to 1843. Originally formed by the late JOHN THOMAS SMITH, but considerably increased by Mr. STANDLY,’ sold at Christie’s from Monday 14 April 1845 for seven days.63 The items above may have reached Platt through Standly or William Upcott or both, as Smith collected for Upcott64 and his obituary in The Gentleman’s Magazine alludes to

60 ‘My honoured friend, James Northcote, Esq. RA., with his usual kindness, gave me two original letters of Mr. and Mrs. Opie’ (Nollekens and his Times (London, 1828), p. 371); ‘Mr. Flaxman, knowing me to be a collector of autographs, among many others, gave me the following letter, which he received from Blake’ (p. 471). 61 Lucy Peltz, ‘Smith, John Thomas (1766–1833)’, ODNB, accessed 14 April 2009; Antony Griffiths, ‘The Department of Prints and Drawings during the First Century of the British Museum’, Burlington Magazine, cxxxvi; 1097 (Aug. 1994), pp. 531-44; Felicity Owen, ‘John Thomas (‘Antiquity’) Smith: a Renaissance Man for the Georgian Age’, Apollo, cxl (Oct. 1994), pp. 34–6. 62 See Felicity Myrone, ‘A Print by Francis Hayman Rediscovered’. Print Quarterly, xxiv: 4 (2007), pp. 426-8; Smith, Nollekens and his Times, vol. i, pp. 95-6. 63 The Christie’s catalogue does not explain which items between lot 217 and lot 1400 originated in J. T. Smith’s collection. 64 Munby, The Cult of the Autograph Letter in England, p. 24.

22 eBLJ 2009, Article 8 J. M. W. Turner and his World: John Platt (1842-1902), a Late Victorian Extra-illustrator, and his Collection

Fig. 10. Francis Hayman (1708-1776), Falstaff seated on a drum, etching, image 125 x 135 mm (cut below platemark), Tab 438.a.1, vol. 2, f. 24.

23 eBLJ 2009, Article 8 J. M. W. Turner and his World: John Platt (1842-1902), a Late Victorian Extra-illustrator, and his Collection autographs passing from Smith to Upcott before a 1833 sale of Smith’s ‘works and effects’ took place:65 ‘He had also at one time a very extensive and curious illustrated series of Royal Academy Catalogues. The greater part of his collection of autographs and letters was purchased a few years since by Mr Upcott; and it is believed others were sold by Mr Christie.’66 It is possible to speculatively match items from in the extra-illustrated Thornbury with lots in the catalogue of Platt’s library sale in an attempt to trace the origins of objects in the collection, as shown below where Platt had bodies of correspondence from Nathaniel Phillips, Henry Mogford or Charles Lock Eastlake. Another example is ‘Lot 274 Harding (G.P.) Correspondence of, comprising about 800 autograph letters from the Nobility, Artists, etc, in 5 portfolios’: the Thornbury also includes letters to the miniaturist George Perfect Harding (1779/80-1853), from John Walker, 44 Leicester Square 17 April 1819 (vol. 2, f. 159); Sir Charles Long (vol. 7, f. 102); John Smith III, Downing Terrace, Cambridge, 8 May 1822 (vol. 4, f. 77); Lady Essex, 1 March 1823 (vol. 8, f. 132), and Samuel Woodburn, Friday 1 November (vol. 11, f. 115). The catalogue also sometimes provides brief provenance details: for example Platt seems to have acquired material from Joseph Mayer (1803-1886), whose collection of more than 20,000 drawings, prints, and autograph letters, as well as works of art and antiquities, was dispersed by auction in Liverpool on 15-16 December 1887.67 Lot 258 is described as ‘Baines’ History of Lancashire, 4 vols., inlaid to folio, and illustrated, by the late Joseph Mayer, by engravings of views, ports, maps, col. lithographs, autograph letters, and original drawings etc, loose in 8 portfolios, some text missing, hence sold w.a.f. 1836’ (sold to Spencer for £17); and lot 276 ‘Cheshire. Docs on vellum and paper, relating to Cheshire, 14th to 18th century, from the Mayer collection’ (sold for £1 to Howell). The extra-illustrated Thornbury includes letters to Joseph Mayer from George Clint, Cockermouth Castle 2 October 1838 (vol. 8, f. 101); Penry Williams 19 October 1841, 12 Piazza Mignanelli (vol. 5, f. 98) annotated by Platt ‘Written from the house where Turner lived while in Rome’; Copley Fielding, 28 April 1844 (vol. 11, f. 78); Count D’Orsay 25 March 1847 (vol. 11, f. 54); and Thomas Lupton, Russell Square, undated (vol. 8, f. 161). Elsewhere provenance or partial provenance is provided by Platt himself, as is the case with the Constable drawing described below, or a letter from Cyrus Redding (1785–1870), journalist, to Messers Bentley & Co, mounted opposite Thornbury’s use of a passage from his autobiography (p. 201; vol. 5, f. 49) which Platt has annotated in pencil ‘This letter is from the collection of William Upcott’.

Conclusion

Of over 1,600 items added by Platt to his edition of Thornbury’s life of Turner, only a small portion can be considered of significant historical or art historical interest. However, the survival, in the form that Platt intended, of the thirteen volumes that he put together with

65 ‘Works of Art and Effects of the late Celebrated Artist and Author, J. T. Smith Esq, Keeper of the Prints and Drawings at the British Museum. MESSRS ELGOOD AND WARD beg the attention of amateurs, &c, to a small COLLECTION of about 40 PICTURES, models and casts, in terra cotta and plaster, of eminent characters etc, 100 volumes of books, collections of autographs, the usual description of furniture in a small house, fixtures, print presses, engraving table, glass cases, gilt elbow chair of His late Majesty when sitting to Cosway, and various other items, forming the entire remaining and genuine property of the deceased, to whom many of the articles were presents from eminent individuals. For public sale on Tuesday the 23rd instant, on the premises at 22, University Street, opposite the London University. May be viewed one day previously, when catalogues may be had. 93 Wimpole Street.’ See The Times, Saturday 20 Apr. 1833, p. 8. 66 Gentleman’s Magazine, June 1833, p. 644. 67 C. W. Sutton, ‘Mayer, Joseph (1803-1886)’, rev. Lionel Burman, ODNB, accessed 7 May 2009.

24 eBLJ 2009, Article 8 J. M. W. Turner and his World: John Platt (1842-1902), a Late Victorian Extra-illustrator, and his Collection such lavish care and attention gives us an exceptional insight into the collecting habits of a late-Victorian industrialist and has protected a mass of materials that would otherwise have been broken up, lost or forgotten. It is hoped that the fuller documentation of this collection which can now be provided for Library users will help ensure that the collection as a whole can be explored and utilized more effectively, and that the historical and bibliographical relevance of the practice of extra-illustration may be more greatly appreciated.

3. The extra-illustrated Thornbury: some items of special interest

We might expect the extra-illustrated edition of Thornbury’s life of Turner to be especially rich in materials directly pertinent to that biographer’s subject, but while there are views of the places associated with Turner there are no drawings by or engravings after him. Platt’s intention was to illustrate the whole range of people and topics which occur, however tangentially, in Thornbury’s text, including artists, publishers, printmakers, royalty, novelists, politicians, poets and authors. The collection does include letters from and about Turner, some of which have been quoted by art historians but often partially and as untraced. John Gage quotes four out of the five from Turner in the collection in his Collected Correspondence of J. M. W. Turner (1980) and does note the source of the letters, although he continues to record one which had previously been quoted by Alexander Finberg (1939) as untraced (see below).68 All the people portrayed in portraits or represented by autographs are now listed and searchable on the collection’s record on the British Library’s Integrated Catalogue, with the relevant volume number(s), and all original drawings and topographical views are given individual catalogue records (a total of 510) linked back to this record. A few highlights from the collection, of particular historical or art-historical interest, are presented here, together with all the manuscript material directly relating to Turner. Letters are transcribed in their original spellings, without the use of [sic]. Additions above the line are enclosed in slashes.

Vol. 2, f. 112. Leaf from the Royal Academy Schools’ attendance book (figs 11 & 12)

An undated leaf from the Royal Academy Schools’ register, showing Turner’s signature alongside his fellow students. Turner started training to be an artist at the Schools in 1789 at the age of fourteen, and Thornbury’s text on the facing page describes his admittance.69

68 John Gage, Collected Correspondence of J. M. W. Turner (Oxford, 1980), hereafter Gage. 69 The Royal Academy Archives now hold most of the Royal Academy Schools acceptance books (dating 1790- 1797). They came to the RA by a circuitous route and were once in the library of Charles Fairfax Murray, and other scraps from the books appear in a set of catalogues they own grangerized by E. B. Jubb (1812-1877). RA archivist Mark Pomeroy believes most of this material came from Ozias Humphry, via William Upcott, or Dawson Turner. Portions of these collections were sent to the BM/BL but significant amounts also filled the collecting market for art manuscripts throughout the 1850s and 1860s (email 28 August 2007).

25 eBLJ 2009, Article 8 J. M. W. Turner and his World: John Platt (1842-1902), a Late Victorian Extra-illustrator, and his Collection Leaf from the Royal Academy Schools’ attendance book, Tab.438.a.1, vol. 2, ff. 112–13. 2, ff. vol. Tab.438.a.1, book, Schools’ attendance Academy Leaf from the Royal Fig. 11 and 12. Fig.

26 eBLJ 2009, Article 8 J. M. W. Turner and his World: John Platt (1842-1902), a Late Victorian Extra-illustrator, and his Collection Fig. 12. Fig.

27 eBLJ 2009, Article 8 J. M. W. Turner and his World: John Platt (1842-1902), a Late Victorian Extra-illustrator, and his Collection

Vol. 1, f. 49. Turner to Hugh Andrew Johnstone Munro of Novar (1797-1864), art collector (figs 13 & 14)70

Fig. 13 and 14. Letter from J. M. W. Turner (1775–1851) to Hugh Andrew Johnstone Munro, of Novar (1797–1864), c. 1836, Tab.438.a.1, vol.1, ff. 49-50.

70 An extract of this letter is published by Alexander Finberg, The Life of J. M.W. Turner, RA (Oxford, 1939), p. 357, with no record of location. Also partially transcribed and recorded as untraced by Gage, p. 197. Both date the letter to 1835. Hugh Andrew Munro (1797-1864) art collector and amateur artist, who financed Turner’s journey to Venice in 1833, and with whom Turner travelled through France to Italy in 1836. This letter probably dates from around 1835-6. The Platt collection contains three letters by Munro (vol. 1, f. 54; vol. 5, ff. 144-5; vol. 13, f. 158).

28 eBLJ 2009, Article 8 J. M. W. Turner and his World: John Platt (1842-1902), a Late Victorian Extra-illustrator, and his Collection

Fig. 14.

29 eBLJ 2009, Article 8 J. M. W. Turner and his World: John Platt (1842-1902), a Late Victorian Extra-illustrator, and his Collection

Monday 4 o’clock My Dear Sir,

Lord Egremont71 having sent word that he wishes me to dine in Grosvenor Place tomorrow, Tuesday may I request the favour of your call [illegible word] for Thursday Evg if I do not hear from you to the contrary I will consider it so fixed and will be at home at the time you said of 8 o’clock.

I have the honour With most faithfully, JMW Turner

HA Monro Esq

Vol. 8, f. 151. Turner to William Bernard Cooke (1778-1855), engraver and publisher, with his note and signature72

There is something in the manner of your note received yesterday Evng so extraordinary and differing so materialy from the conversation of Wednesday last that I must request you to reconsider the following [end of fragment]

(Autograph of J. M. W. Turner RA – signed on the other side W. B. Cooke)

[Verso]

I am Dear Sir Yours J. M. W. Turner

Vol. 13, f. 12. Turner to Mr Webb [?] 73

J. M. W. Turner presents his respects to Mr Webb and he will have the honor of waiting upon him on Friday next in Langham Place

Queen Anne St West

Vol. 9, f. 14. Turner to Benjamin West (1778-1820), painter74

71 George O’Brien Wyndham, third earl of Egremont (1751-1837), art patron, agriculturist, and philanthropist. Turner was a regular visitor at his home, Petworth House, Sussex, from 1827 to 1837, and Thornbury records that Turner ‘spent some of his happiest days there.’ The collection includes manuscript material by Egremont at vol. 10, f. 148. 72 Gage, p. 120. Gage tentatively dates the letter to late 1826. Cooke is represented by autographs at vol. 6, f. 88; vol. 7, f. 26; vol. 8, f. 151; vol. 12, f. 112; and vol. 13, f. 180. 73 Not included in Gage. 74 Gage, p. 64. Gage notes that West had become PRA in 1792 but seems to have overlooked the break in his office in 1816. He was in the habit of striking medals in self-commemoration (see J. T. Smith Nollekens and his Times, vol. ii, pp. 384, 396-7). West spoke highly of Turner’s Bridgewater Seapiece in 1801 (Finberg, Life of Turner, p. 71), but by 1807 was an outspoken critic (ibid. pp. 125, 133, 135). He is represented by autographs at vol. 1, f. 163; vol. 2, f. 40; and vol. 6, f. 24.

30 eBLJ 2009, Article 8 J. M. W. Turner and his World: John Platt (1842-1902), a Late Victorian Extra-illustrator, and his Collection

Queen Ann St West July 11 1816 Dear Sir Not being so fortunate as to meet with you at home to return you my thanks in person for the Medal (sent to me on Monday) in commemoration of your twenty-fifth year as President of the Royal Academy - I now take the opportunity of assuring you that your kind attention to me as an Artist and likewise the present honorable notice of me as a Member of the Royal Academy will be ever most sincerely acknowledged and felt by –

Dear Sir, your most truly obliged J. M. W. Turner

B. West Esq President of the Royal Academy &c &c &c &c.

[verso] Mr Turner Letter to Mr West

Vol. 9, f. 134. Turner to Emma Wells, daughter of William Frederick Wells (bap. 1764, d. 1836), watercolour painter, etcher and drawing master75

Dear Emma, I am sorry to say that at present I am hard at work in the Gallery but shall be happy to have a peep at you in the Parlour whenever you please Yours truly J. M. W. Turner

[Verso]

Miss Wells J.M.W. Turner Esqr Queen Anne Street West

75 Gage, p. 93. Also published by Jack Lindsay, J. M. W. Turner. His Life and Work. A Critical Biography (London, 1966), p. 234, n. 6. Possibly from 1820. See also research notes by W. T. Whitley, author of the influential Art in England, 1821-1837 (Cambridge, 1930). These are held in the British Museum Department of Prints and Drawings. There Whitley transcribes the letters quoted in his publications with their sources and describes the collection as a whole as ‘TURNER Extended life by Thornbury, the 1862 edition, compiled by John Platt of Clifton Lodge, Llandudno. At BM given during the War, I think. Thirteen volumes magnificently bound in red morocco – volumes as large or larger than the old Art Journal and “end papers” of rich corded silk. Each volume in a black leather case, into which it slips. Numerous illustrations and MS letters.’ 1546 ‘Platt’s Turner at BM. Pencil note from Turner on rough piece of paper stained here and there with colour – very friendly – to Miss Wells – apparently young – daughter of Wm Frederick Wells, watercolour painter.’

31 eBLJ 2009, Article 8 J. M. W. Turner and his World: John Platt (1842-1902), a Late Victorian Extra-illustrator, and his Collection

Vol. 5, f. 148. Sir Charles Lock Eastlake (1793-1865), painter and art administrator to Nathaniel George Philips (1795-1831), painter76

Rome 12 Piazza Mignanelli77 Feby 10 1829

My dear Phillips

I was very glad to hear so good an account of you from Ewing78 – that you had finished & satisfactorily finished your Banditti picture & that a set is to be exhibited & engraved – I remember the numerous designs made in the Haymarket (perhaps Miss C. sat for you occasionally) & they seemed to promise a good group. The commission you have with Ewing & the kindness which prompted it is felt by him duly & he is sparing no pains to make a piece of clay very like me (being ready to begin it in marble forthwith) it is thought to be one of his best so far & if oversimplicity [?] does not operate to the prejudice of his work you will have another good specimen of the little man’s powers – in return for what can only be considered a liberal & kind remembrance [?] of old friends, on whom it will not be lost. You have doubtless heard of Severn’s marriage in this he has really been very fortunate, if good fortunate can ever attach itself to the word marriage – to some it is a contradiction – to you & myself perhaps, tho’ for very different reasons – to be because I have left it too long, to you ‘non si sa perché’ but Severn was married without much consideration like all that

76 The section of this letter regarding Turner is often quoted without a source in modern biographies by scholars using W. T. Whitley’s Art in England, 1821-1837 as a guide, in which he deliberately does not cite the locations of the works he consulted: Whitley, 1930, p. 159; Finberg, p. 311; Lindsay, Turner, p. 166; Ian Warrell, J. M. W. Turner, (London, 2007), p.138. Also noted by John Gage, who does note the source and provide a shelf mark for the collection, in ‘Turner’s Academic Friendships: C. L. Eastlake’, Burlington Magazine, ccx: 789 (Dec. 1968), Special Issue Commemorating the Bicentenary of The Royal Academy (1768-1968), pp. 677-85 (p. 679, n. 20). Gage may have followed the clues in Whitley’s research notes (see above). The paintings mentioned are Regulus 1828, reworked 1837 (Andrew Wilton, The Life and Work of J. M. W. Turner, 1979, P294: Tate 519), View of Orvieto, painted in Rome 1828, reworked 1830 (Wilton 1979 P292: Tate 511), and Vision of Medea, 1828 (Wilton 1979, P293: Tate 513). Eastlake uses similar phrases when describing Turner’s work in a letter to Lawrence dated 9 December 1828: George Somes Layard, Sir Thomas Lawrence’s Letterbag (London, 1906), p. 211. Thornbury quotes Eastlake describing Turner painting and exhibiting these paintings (vol. i, pp. 221, 319-20. The extra-illustrated Thornbury contains four other letters from Eastlake which Whitley does not cite, and others formerly owned by Platt have been dispersed: the sale of John Platt’s library (detailed above) included lot 275 ‘Eastlake (Sir C.) Correspondence of, comprising autograph letters from Tom Moore, Sir Robert Peel, Spencer Perceval, Sir T. Lawrence, etc. etc, with portraits, in a large scrap-book.’ 77 Thornbury quotes Eastlake as saying that Turner stayed with him in this house and painted the works described in this letter there ‘When Turner was in Rome, in 1828-29, he resided in the same house with me (12 Piazza Mignanelli, where Mr Percy [Penry] Williams now lives). He painted there the “view of Orvieto”, the “Regulus” and the “Medea’” (Thornbuy 1862, p. 221). 78 William Ewing, sculptor working in Rome in the 1820s (described by Joseph Severn in a letter to Charles Brown May 2 1821, Grant Scott (ed.), Joseph Severn: Letters and Memoirs, Aldershot, 2005).

32 eBLJ 2009, Article 8 J. M. W. Turner and his World: John Platt (1842-1902), a Late Victorian Extra-illustrator, and his Collection happens to him & he is now even happier than before – it was difficult for him to be much happier but he has really reason to be so, for he might have gone a great deal further & fared well.79 With respect to the Via Gregoriana I know nothing altho’ I occasionally visit some people who live in the home you lived in – I did meet Confidati80 but how long ago I can hardly say & he said they were ‘tutti bene’ You will have heard of Mr Turner’s visit to Rome he worked literally night & day here, began eight or ten pictures & finished & exhibited three all in about 2 months or little more \more than a/ thousand \persons/ formerly [illegible word struck through] went to see his works when exhibited & you may imagine how astonished, enraged or delighted the different schools of artists were at seeing things with methods so new, inventions so daring, & excellences so unequivocal - The angry critics have I believe talked most & it is possible you may hear of general severity of judgment, but this is many did justice & many more will to fain to admire what they confessed they dared not imitate. You will probably see in the exhibition two of the pictures - Regulus \(a sea-port)/ & a view of Orvieto - the third was called the Vision of Medea the figures principal, very bold & poetical & most agreeable in general colour. An old acquaintance of yours has been sometime in Rome & does not seem inclined to bear [?] it, I allude to Mr Solomon Gibson81 – the most extraordinary thing he has done since I returned from England was walking from Subiaco to Rome in a day – his brother82 is going quietly & steadily as usual he has lately done a Narcissus [?] very beautiful – Wyatt83 is doing his nymph bathing in marble. Severn is going blind [?] or has sent his fountain (country girls at a fountain) for the Exhibition84 & Williams has sent a subject of Italian costume85 – I have nothing. The print which is to be dedicated to you is not yet finished, I told the lady, who seems the presiding person, that she was to apply of Freebairn86 when it was done & give him the print or prints to read [?] – she has a note of your orders – There is no carnival on account of the Pope’s death. Believe me, my dear Phillips, Yours very sincerely, C. Eastlake

[Addressed to Nathaniel George Phillips Esq, 32 Rodney Street, Liverpool]

79 Joseph Severn (1793–1879), painter. Joseph Severn and Elizabeth Montgomerie were married on 5 October 1828 in Florence. (David Kaloustian, ‘Severn, Joseph (1793–1879)’, ODNB [www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/25132, accessed 14 Aug 2009]. 80 Unidentified. 81 Solomon Gibson (1796/7–1866), sculptor. 82 John Gibson (1790–1866), sculptor. RA 1829 he exhibits 1119 Cupid, a statue in marble, and in 1831 1195 A nymph untying her sandal (nothing in 1830). 83 Richard James Wyatt (1795–1850), sculptor. RA 1831 1191 A nymph going into the bath, a statue in marble. 84 Joseph Severn (1793–1879), painter. RA 1829 18 The lovers…, 235 A Venetian warrior taking leave of his wife, 404 An Italian scene, 1830 440 The Fountain. 85 Penry Williams (1802–1885), painter. RA 1829 30 The return…, 1830 38 A Roman beggar woman and her child, 285 Italian peasants praying to the Madonna. 86 Alfred Robert Freebairn (1794/5–1846), engraver and etcher?

33 eBLJ 2009, Article 8 J. M. W. Turner and his World: John Platt (1842-1902), a Late Victorian Extra-illustrator, and his Collection

Vol. 7, f. 70. Richard Westmacott (1799-1872), sculptor, to Nathaniel George Philips, painter (1795-1831)87

[Describing the Royal Academy Exhibition, 1831; opposite Thornbury’s mention of Caligula’s Palace and Bridge, Bay of Baiae and The Vision of Medea, p. 319]

My dear Philips,

When I look back I can hardly conceive it possible that so much time has passed and that I have allowed it to slip by without fulfilling two of what I consider not merely pleasures but duties – namely writing a letter to you and a letter to my still older friend Severn on the state of the Belle Arti – but the truth is I have been so fogged, bothered & harassed that I have been unable to sit down quietly & properly to anything like friendly gossiping – my Mancanga [?] has been lying heavily on my conscience; you shall have the first fruits of my return to order & next week I must try to do my duty to Sir Giuseppe Imperini[?] The Exhibition, ‘tho kept open some time after the usual time has not been so productive by 4 or 500 £ as in former years – this information I procure behind the scenes. I must say for my own part that I think it was underrated for altho’ we wanted Lawrence & Jackson88 (& their top rally was great) there were a vast number of pictures of ordinary mint, & I was particularly gratified, as were others who do not swear all by face painting, to see such a variety of subject Pictures – Hilton, Etty & Briggs had extensive compositions containing passages of force, feeling & colour that showed that we have it in us when there is any opportunity of producing historical art.89 Wilkie chose to exhibit but 2 Pictures – both Portraits!90 Good of course, but I think Pickersgill91 carried away the Palm in that department – Landseer was very strong – so to show that it is extremely difficult to say in what his Pictures were deficient – expression, drawing, composition colour & great care appeared in all he exhibited92 – Turner was

87 Partially quoted by Whitley, Art in England 1821-1837, p. 212, with the same section regarding Turner repeated in other sources such as Butlin & Joll, The Paintings of Turner, revised edition (New Haven, 1984), p. 189. The paintings described are RA 1831 73 Life-Boat and Manby Apparatus going off to a Stranded Vessel Making Signal (Blue lights) of Distress (Wilton 1979 P336: V&A); 162 Caligula’s Palace and Bridge (Wilton 1979 P337: Tate 512), 178 Vision of Medea (Wilton 1979 P293: Tate 513), 263 Lucy, Countess of Carlisle, and Dorothy Percy's Visit to their Father Lord Percy... (Wilton 1979 P338: Tate 515), 288 Admiral Van Tromp's Barge… (Wilton 1979 P339: Soane Museum), 298 Watteau Study by Fresnoy's Rules (Wilton 1979 P340: Tate 514), 406 In this arduous service (of Reconnaissance) on the French coast, 1805… (Wilton 1979 P341: private collection). In addition to those quoted above, the extra-illustrated Thornbury includes letters to Nathaniel George Phillips from William Allan, Edinburgh 29 June 1824 (vol. 8, f. 87) and John Jackson, Grove End Road, St Johns Wood, May 23 1831 (vol. 8, f. 81). Lot 265 of the sale of Platt’s library was ‘Nathaniel G. Philip Correspondence of, comprising about 90 autograph letters, from Sir Wm Allen, Sir C. L. Eastlake, Richard Westmacott, and others, in portfolio’. 88 Sir Thomas Lawrence, (1769–1830), painter and draughtsman, chiefly of portraits; John Jackson (1778–1831), portrait painter and copyist. 89 William Hilton (1786–1839), painter. RA 1831, 64 Sir Calepine rescuing Serena, 168 The Angel releasing Peter from prison. William Etty (1787–1849), painter. RA 1831, 144 Nymph angling, 163 Window in Venice during a fiesta, 170 Sabrina from Milton’s Comus. Henry Perronet Briggs (1791–1844), antiquary and subject painter. RA 1831, 55 The Progress of Civilisation, 151 Portrait of a lady and child, 344 Sir Edward Hall Alderson, 487 Portraits of a lady and infant. 90 Sir David Wilkie (1785–1841), painter of genre, historical subjects, and portraits. RA 1831, 62 Lady Lyndhurst, 91 Viscount Melville. 91 Henry William Pickersgill (1782–1875), portrait painter. RA 1831, 70 Lady Clanwilliam, 133 Lord Lyndhurst, 171 Edward Lytton Bulwer, 172 Lieut-General the Rt. Hon Sir George Murray GCB, 291 Sir John Gears Cotterell, 393 Charles Kemble. 92 Sir Edwin Henry Landseer, (1802–1873), animal painter. RA 1831, 86 Interior of a Highlander’s House, 146 Poachers deer stalking, 147 Little Red Riding Hood, 293 The poacher’s bothy, 301 Poacher and red deer.

34 eBLJ 2009, Article 8 J. M. W. Turner and his World: John Platt (1842-1902), a Late Victorian Extra-illustrator, and his Collection also not only strong al solito in talent but in numbers 7 or 8 Pictures were by him – One only was very mad – a Medea raving in the midst of her bedevilments & incantations. You can conceive how Turner would out-Herod Herod on such matters! He had one very clever smaller work of a vessel in distress in the distance, blue lights &c. I think Soane bought it. He had also the ruins of Caligula’s palace at Baiae, gorgeous & grand but unintelligible to the multitude93 – Callcott (who bye the bye has been very ill, but is now recovering) had 8 – varied and all beautiful some were thought a little chalky (I did not peruse it), but two or three sunny Pictures were delicious.94 Eastlake was very clever – one of his works a Contadino, wife & child, half lengths, size of life was as broad & grand as Titian, he wanted force, the critics said, & it struck me so too & his shadows were a little too red or bloody – it gave [illegible] & the flesh but it hardly looked healthy95 – the President (how I jump) shows in his portraits at which we were all very glad96 & of Sir William Beechey the less that is said the better – the King & Queen were sad97 – Constable had a large landscape full of talent but very odd – most coarsely painted, it looked as if it were worked in worsted & had then been powdered98 – Phillips had his full number of portraits & they were much liked99 – Westall was hardly decent – he had Faust dancing waltzing with a naked girl (a little bit of transparent drapery over parts) size of life – & Margaret (from Faust) size of life praying100 – Leslie had an inimitable little scene from Tristram Shandy – The Widow and My Uncle Toby in the Sentry Box – she making him examine her eye – you remember the passage of course101 – I have fully well run through the big wigs – Allan had one ‘Ld. Byron reposing chez a Turkish Fisherman’ – good of course but con rispetto parlando not equal to himself102 – Partridge is striding onwards103 – a Mr Liverseege had 2 small & very clever subject pictures104 – the D. of Devonshire bought one of them I shd have mentioned Newton amongst the Academy men as very effiec [cut away] great, bran [damage to paper] strength & colour.105 The sculpture room was full, & made a fair show [damaged area] in number by my father, Gibson, Wyatt, Gott, Rennie, Hind..[cut away] and myself – two or three groups, [illegible] in fact a very tolerable

93 See above. 94 Sir Augustus Wall Callcott (1779–1844), painter. RA 1831, 11 Dutch Coast, 61 Evening, an Italian Landscape, 97 Morning, 122 Italian Landscape, 135 Canal of Bruges, 136 A mill dam, 307 View of Trent in the Tyrol, 417 A sunny morning. 95 Sir Charles Lock Eastlake (1793–1865), painter and art administrator. RA 1831, 78 An Italian family…, 125 A peasant woman fainting from the bite of a serpent; 300 Haidee, a Greek girl. 96 Sir Martin Archer Shee (1769–1850), portrait painter and writer. RA 1831 105 Miss Eliza Cooper, 112 John Woolmore, 148 Pascoe Grenfell, 161 Sir Robert William Vaughan. 97 Sir William Beechey (1753–1839), portrait painter. RA 1831, 65 His Majesty, 66 Her Majesty, 127 William F. Norton, 177 the late Lord Mayor, 264 portrait of a Lady. 98 John Constable (1776–1837), landscape painter and draughtsman. RA 1831 123 Yarmouth Pier, 169 Salisbury Cathedral from the meadows. 99 Thomas Phillips (1770–1845), portrait painter. RA 1831, 6 Wilson Patten MP, 24 The Earl of Winchelsea, 87 Lord Stowell, 106 Lady Jane Walround, 165 The Rev. Dr Sleath, 189 William Phipson, 289 Sir Alexander Johnstone, 410 J. Nixon. 100 Richard Westall (1765–1836), painter and illustrator. RA 1831, 1 Margaret at church, tormented by the evil one, 33 Faust preparing to dance with the young witch…, 124 The death of Mary Magdalene, 156 A Boy breaking frozen turnips for the cattle, 164 The late Alexander Burdon, 234 Holy Family, 314 Moonlight, 356 Landscape – twilight. 101 Charles Robert Leslie (1794–1859), literary genre painter and author. RA 1831 113 The dinner at Mr Page’s house, 238 A scene from Tristram Shandy. 102 Sir William Allan (1782–1850), painter. RA 1831 32 Lord Byron Reposing in the House of a Fisherman. 103 John Partridge (1789–1872), portrait painter. RA 1831. 23 The Countess of Guilford, 45 Master Frederick Tighe, 195 Uva Svelte, 218 A portrait. 104 Henry Liverseege (1803–1832), painter. RA 1831 28 Sir Piercie Shafton…, 72 Scene from Hamlet. 105 Gilbert Stuart Newton (1794–1835), artist. RA 1831 7 Subject from the Merchant of Venice, 152 Lear attended by Cordelia and the Physician.

35 eBLJ 2009, Article 8 J. M. W. Turner and his World: John Platt (1842-1902), a Late Victorian Extra-illustrator, and his Collection display106. I don’t know what was thought amongst the Big Wigs of us Romans – but we tried to do our best – Gibson was not quite himself but Wyatt’s nymph was beautiful – Gott in dogs & Children was good too – Cambell not awry [?]107. Rennie told pretty fairly too – Macdonald, con rispetto, failed108 – my dear fellow how I wish you had been one of us, either as an Exhibitor or as a Looker on for I know what an interest you take in Art. Uwins109 is here but says he will not exhibit till he can paint – for they know nothing about it where he has been & nothing arrived from Severn. I believe I shd have written to you before but I hardly liked to remind you of our goings on when I knew that for the present you could not join us – but tell me that you like such gossipings & I will not fail to be your newsman – I know you won’t let my criticisms get about so I shall not fear to say to you what I think – Lodge110 left town on Saturday – I have seen but little of him for he is a man of pleasure I have much to do to get either name or money & can’t be a mere flitterabout we met at the opera sometimes & were very happy – I don’t know whether you know Mr Bruther [?] the Captain111 – he got married one morning to a nice person & has gone to Sidney (5 days ago) as Aide de camp to the [word illegible] it all happened so suddenly & unexpectedly that I can hardly think it true – I am in a state [illegible word] too poor, and with anxiety enough without it, to dare to think of adding a lady to my little establishment – I wish I may not have tired you with this long letter – pray let me hear from you, or if you find writing a trouble, of you. I remember with sincere pleasure all the happy days we have spent together & continually rail against fate which obsesses [?] one in working through the world to delay doing the little graces of life amongst them through [?] communicating with our friends of times gone by – Lodge told me you were at Childwall – I therefore direct to you there & oblige you by presenting my best comp[limen]ts to all your kind family. Yours truly R.W.W.

[postscript]

Incornati112 [?] is here, come to spec in teaching Italian – he gives a good account of our Roman friends, particularly of Wyatt & Gibson – Ewing seems to be quite forgotten by all – I never hear of him – Trentanove also called upon me last week – he is come I suppose to look out for employment but I doubt that scheme answering113 – Can I do anything for you here don’t hesitate to employ me if I can – I trust you will tell me that you are getting stronger & better. I have not talked to you about your sickness & long confinement; why should I talk write on painful subjects, but I have heard often of your through some of your kind friends – amongst them Lodge, Henderson, Harvey, Bell114 & others – let me have some good news to tell them from yourself

[Addressed to Nathaniel G. Philips, Childwall, W. Liverpool, postmarked July 29 1831]

106 Sir Richard Westmacott (1775–1856), sculptor. RA 1831 1197 Statue in marble of the Late Mrs Rawson. John Gibson, (Solomon did not exhibit) – see above. Richard James Wyatt, see above. Joseph Gott (1785–1860), sculptor. RA 1831, 1163 Marble group of a boy and dog, 1223 Marble group of Venus dissuading Adonis from the chase, 1224 The madness of Athamas. George Rennie (1802–1860), sculptor and politician. RA 1831 1196 Group in marble of Cupid and Hymen, 1102 Bust of John Rennie, 1206 Bust of Chevalier Thorwaldsen, 1210 Bust of Sir Edward Banks. ‘Hind…’ has not been identified. Richard Westmacott (1799–1872), sculptor. RA 1831 1164 Venus carrying away Ascanius. 107 Thomas Campbell (1791–1858), sculptor. RA 1831 1180 Sketch for a statue of Earl Grey, 1217 Bust in bronze of the Duke of Wellington, 1227 Statue portrait of a lady as a muse. 108 Lawrence Macdonald (1799–1878), sculptor. RA 1831 1205 marble bust of Mrs Brougham, 1216 Marble bust of Mrs Balfour, 1232 Marble statue of a child. 109 Thomas Uwins (1782–1857), painter, illustrator, and art administrator. Does not exhibit in RA 1831. 110 Not identified. 111 ditto 112 ditto 113 Possibly Raimondo Trentanove, Italian sculptor (1792-1832). 114 Possibly Andrew Henderson (1783–1835), portrait painter, Sir George Harvey (1806–1876), figure and landscape painter, and Robert Charles Bell (1806–1872), engraver and draughtsman. 36 eBLJ 2009, Article 8 J. M. W. Turner and his World: John Platt (1842-1902), a Late Victorian Extra-illustrator, and his Collection

Vol. 9, f. 131. Francis Hawkesworth Fawkes (1796-1871), son of Walter Ramsden Hawkesworth Fawkes (1769-1825), friend of Turner and art collector, to Henry Mogford (1787- 1874) picture dealer, author and antiquary

Farnley – Septr 30 1854

Sir, I did not return Home from the Continent till two days ago, where I found your letter dated Aug. 28 awaiting my arrival, and I hasten to assure you, as early as is in my powers, that you will always be most welcome to see all the works of Art by Turner that I possess, whenever it may be most convenient to yourself I am Sir Yr most obdnt F. H. Fawkes

Henry Mogford Esqr F.S.A.115

Vol. 12, f. 155. Thomas Creswick (1811-1869), landscape painter, to William Bernard Cooke (1778-1855), engraver and publisher116

[Sent from Birmingham, 21 August 1832; partially transcribed]

[…] I am exceedingly obliged for your kindness respecting the River Scenery &c &c the plates are beautiful & will be very useful to me as an artist.[…]

115 The extra-illustrated Thornbury collection includes other letters to Mogford, such as from Richard Redgrave, 18 Hereford Gate, 4 June 1852 (vol. 4, f. 64); Alfred Edward Chalon, 10 Wimpole St, 10 March 1853, vol. 13, f. 82; Frederick Nash, 44 Montpelier Road, Brighton, 17 June 1855 (vol. 4, f. 74); Frank Dillon, 4 Montague Place, Russell Square, 20 April 1857 (vol. 8, f. 167); Gustaf Waagen, 7 Fitzroy Square, undated (vol. 11, f. 125); Charles Robert Leslie, 2 Abercorn Place, St Johns Wood, 15 March 1856 (vol. 11, f. 147); Henry William Pickersgill, Fern Lodge Barnes 30 June 1856 (vol. 12, f. 157); Hugh Andrew Johnstone Munro of Novar, 6 Hamilton Place, 3 July 1852 (vol. 13, f. 158); John Henry Le Keux, 23 July 1860 (vol. 1, f. 64). Mogford helped organize the fine arts section at the Crystal Palace and was in touch with leading artists of the time. John Platt collected a large amount of his correspondence, as the sale of his library includes lot 263, ‘Artists. A collection of about 1,300 Autograph letters of Artists, to Henry Mogford, arranged in 4 portfolios’ (sold to Wells for £1 12s 6d). Some of Mogford’s letters are now in the City of Westminster Archives Centre (Accession 988/16, 42, 47). 116 There is a large body of correspondence between publishers, engravers and artists in the collection regarding printmaking. Some of the letters can be interesting in giving details of the costs involved, for example the publisher F. J. Du Roveray, writes to a copper plate printer E .W. Richards in May 1798, (vol. 2, f. 92): ‘Sir/As I have some plats to print, for a new edition of Glover’s Leonidas, which I am about to publish, I shall be glad to know your terms for doing them with the best ink, and with the utmost care possible? The plats are highly finished, 4 inches by 3 upright, and I might put two or three into your hands, from each I would want about 900 Prints. As most of the Plats are already in my possession, I could wish to receive your answer as soon as possible, and likewise to know how many impressions you could work off in a day (paying that attention to them which I wish) that I may judge how long the whole would take to print./Waiting your answer, I remain,/Your most Obt Svt/FJ DuRoverary/Friday evening No.14 Gt. St Helens, Bishopsgate Street/ [another hand] 3 shillings and sixpence p 500 best ink and printing Proofs/3 shillings the others/Will be delivered in about 10 days/Your very humble EW Richards/ [Verso –] Mr Richards/ Copper Plat Printer/Mear’s Street/Soho’. [Postmark 10 o’clock, 26 May, 98 f noon/Lombard Street unpaid].

37 eBLJ 2009, Article 8 J. M. W. Turner and his World: John Platt (1842-1902), a Late Victorian Extra-illustrator, and his Collection

Vol. 12, f. 19. John Ruskin (1819-1900), art critic, to his assistant Crawley117

[Marked instructions for hanging Ruskin’s exhibition of his collection of Turner watercolours at the Fine Art Society in 1878]

On letterhead paper, stamped: Brantwood, Coniston, Lancashire

12th February 1878

Dear Crawley I can’t get the catalogue quite done – but here are the numbers of the most important terminal drawings, fixed. + 54. Dinant +118 + 55 Rolandseck + >small119 56. Rouen, my precious [?] small gold frames120 + 57 sketches here121 58122 + 59 Faido. Rock Sketch – in table [?] at Oxford123 60124 61 Sketches here small gold frames all125

See over

[verso]

+ 62 Coblentz +126 + 63 Constance +127 + 64 Zug +128 + 65 Goldau +129 + 66 Faido & Gothard Convent & stones +130

117 See John Ruskin, Notes by Mr. Ruskin on his collection of Drawings by the late J. M. W. Turner, R.A. (London, 1878), in The Works of John Ruskin, edited by E. T. Cook and Alexander Wedderburn (London, 1903-12), vol. xiii, pp. 392-537. Ian Warrell has very kindly identified the Turners Ruskin mentions here, as below. He suggests that the discrepancies in the numbering compared with the published catalogue suggest that some fine tuning went on in the gallery before it opened to the public (email 18/8/2009). The Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art, Oxford, holds another letter to Crawley written the same day giving instructions for the transportation of the drawings from Oxford to London (RS 29). 118 E. T. Cook and Alexander Wedderburn, (eds.) The Works of John Ruskin, vol. xiii, p. 450, no. 53, Dinant on the Meuse (Wilton 1979, no. 1026: Newcastle). 119 Ibid, p. 450, no. 54 or 5, On the Rhine or Twilight [unclear which this is]. 120 Ibid, p. 451, no. 56 Rouen, from St Catherine’s Hill (Wilton 1979, no. 966: private collection). 121 Ibid, p. 451, no. 57(?), Tell’s Chapel, Lake Lucerne (Wilton 1979, no. 1480: Yale Collection of British Art). 122 Ibid, p. 453, no. 59(?), Bellinzona (Wilton 1979, no. 1489: Manchester). 123 Ibid, p. 452, no. 58 Dazio Grande (Wilton 1979, no. 1492: Rhode Island School of Design). 124 untraced. 125 ditto. 126 Ibid. p. 454, no. 62, Coblentz (Wilton 1979, no. 1530: Cincinnati). 127 Ibid, p. 454, no. 63, Constance (Wilton 1979, no. 1531: York). 128 Ibid, p. 455, no. 64, Lake of Zug (Wilton 1979, no. 1535: Metropolitan, New York). 129 Ibid, p. 455, no. 65, Goldau (Wilton 1979, no. 153: private collection). 130 Ibid, p. 456, no. 66, Pass of St Gothard (Wilton 1979, no. 1538: Whitworth, Manchester).

38 eBLJ 2009, Article 8 J. M. W. Turner and his World: John Platt (1842-1902), a Late Victorian Extra-illustrator, and his Collection

+ 67 Arona +131 + 68 Dark Italy with cows in water132 69 Big big Geneva here to be at end of room133 + 70 Fleuelen to be hung under Turners portrait at the other end +134

Yrs always affect. J R

Vol. 6, f. 38. William Woollett (1735-1785) printmaker, Receipt for ‘The Death of General Wolfe’

May 3rd 1776 Rec:d of Mr Boydell twenty four Guineas on Account for 24 prints of Gen. Wolfe. Wm Woollett.135

Vol. 3, f. 42. John Robert Cozens, Caesar’s Tower near Martinach, August 31 1776, pencil, ink and watercolour on paper which has been folded vertically, 230 x 349 mm (fig.15)

Richard Payne Knight took Cozens on a tour of Switzerland in 1776, and most of the resulting views are now in the British Museum. This drawing of the Castle of La Batiaz, near Martigny in Switzerland was last recorded as in the possession of William Ward of Richmond, Surrey, in 1898, bought at a sale at Sotheby’s as one of a group of nine drawings from the collections of Richard Payne Knight and the Hon. Rowland Allanson-Winn. John Platt has written ‘This identical drawing by John Robert Cozens was copied by J. M. W. Turner (probably at Dr. Munro’s)’ in pencil beneath the image. The Turner watercolour he refers to is held by the V&A.

Vol. 13, f. 92. Undated leaf from the notebook of James Barry (1741-1806) painter, describing his work on the decoration of the Great Room in the Adelphi136

Orpheus ------Ancient Universal hist Vol V

See Cudworth & the Universal History for the Egg – & the Orphick doctrines – wild fruit shaking from ye trees, acorns &c some figures to bind between ye old man and the

131 Ibid, p. 456, no. 67, Arona, Lago Maggiore (Wilton 1979, no. 730: private collection). 132 Ibid, p. 457, no. 68, Italy of the olden time (Wilton 1979, no. 401: Wolverhampton). 133 Ibid, p. 458, no. 69, Geneva (Wilton 1979, no. 370 YCBA). 134 Ibid, p. 459, no. 70, Fleuelen (Wilton 1979, no. 1541: YCBA). 135 For descriptions of this very lucrative publishing venture, see Charles Mitchell, ‘Benjamin West’s “Death of General Wolfe” and the Popular History Piece’, Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, vii (1944), pp. 20-33, Alan McNairn, Behold the Hero: General Wolfe and the Arts in the Eighteenth Century (Montreal, 1997), pp.147-53 and Louis Alexander Fagan, A Catalogue Raisonne of the Engraved Works of William Woollett (London, 1885), pp. x-xv. 136 The series was started in 1777 and first exhibited in 1783, but Barry continued to retouch the canvases on numerous occasions until his death in 1806. See David Allan (ed.), ‘The Progress of Human Knowledge and Culture’ by James Barry (London, 2005).

39 eBLJ 2009, Article 8 J. M. W. Turner and his World: John Platt (1842-1902), a Late Victorian Extra-illustrator, and his Collection , 31 August 1776, pencil, ink and watercolour on paper which has been folded on which 1776, pencil, ink and watercolour paper August , 31 Caesar’s Tower near Martinach Tower Caesar’s John Robert CozensJohn (1752-1797), Fig. 15. Fig. vertically, 230 x 349 mm, Tab.438.a.1, vol. 3, f. 42. 3, f. vol. Tab.438.a.1, 230 x 349 mm, vertically,

40 eBLJ 2009, Article 8 J. M. W. Turner and his World: John Platt (1842-1902), a Late Victorian Extra-illustrator, and his Collection foot of Orpheus – ye Lyon too little – ye light of ye lions mane extended nearer ye woman breast who carries ye fawn & upon her face so as to make her look over ye other shoulder X ye \skin twined over more to extend ye light/ Tibullus B.1 Eleg. 3 ye note from Thompson – place Ceres & Bacchus in ye extreme distance of ye sky as coming down \alphabet &c/ ye Egg before him & before ye altar. a fight between men & lyons in ye distance where ye man is are torn &c.

------

Thames Hardware, Manchester &c in ye Shell – Trade laws, ye right breast of Mercury bad. – ye right arm of ye Thames bad – ye head of ye second nymph bad, ye right knee of ye nymph on her back to be raised – Arm of ye first nymph bad. – ye back of ye third nymph bad, swells out too much – ye upper abdomen of ye Thames not large enough. – \ye nymphs carrying ropes [?] art [?]/ & arts & sciences &c introduced every where by navigation – by ye mariners compass – vices & luxury also – Europe wants occiput & hair –

[Verso]

Elysium

Popish penal laws falling into hell, & commemoration sermons on powder plots, Irish rebellions &c, - The great light or glory behind ye palms & from thence dying away & spreading insensibly gradations over ye picture to be warm – naples yellow & white like ye evening sun, but not so firey, ye cooler lights for ye extremities, dying away into purple & bluish & blackish near ye hell. Bacon, Copernicus & that whole groupe to be in mezzoscuro – a ridge of clouds gradually rising ascending somewhere behind Plato & figures walking up & down, they may be somwhat largish, perhaps about ye size of distance of Sapho or less or more as will appear when I see the whole effect – behind all ye clouds going like ye seats of an amphitheatre for as every where to give an idea of infinitude & plenitude – ye chains of separation twixt ye two plates [?]. – the hand of the larger angel over ye orrery too little. ye nipples of Miss Grace too low – Alfred’s harp – ye left shoulder of ye younger son of Diagoras to be lower – all Dante’s drapery of ye same colour – Miss Grace’s other wing [diagram] so – ye wings of Urania thicker at ye roots – ------ye rock to run up edgewise near Euphranor & Callimacus so as to make a decided seperation – Enchiridion – Cicero’s offices & Tusculum – Plutarch – Sappho more light under her right breast spread – Wm Pen not so upright – Domenichino pointing to Hussey ------Drapery of Lycurgus to be lighter more ye colour of that of Brutus to make a mass ‘tis now spotty.

41 eBLJ 2009, Article 8 J. M. W. Turner and his World: John Platt (1842-1902), a Late Victorian Extra-illustrator, and his Collection

Vol. 2, f. 14. Queen Charlotte (1744-1818), consort of George III, to Frederick, Prince, duke of York and Albany (1763-1827), army officer and bishop of Osnabrück, second son of George III and QC

My dearest Frederick.

I received your Letter when I was in the Town of Richmount going out on an Airing. I have wrote to the P. of W. that I have had an opportunity of mentioning to the King that I was in possession of those Papers, & must now leave it to His judgement when He thinks it fit to peruse them. Should I meet with a proper moment of mentioning your request to the King I shall not fail to do it, but that will certainly not be to day as He has already seen a good many People & and is now out a walking which of course will make it too late.

I am my dearest Frederick

Your very affectionate

Mother & Friend

Charlotte

Kew The 6th Febry 1789137

Vol. 6, f. 20. John Boydell (1720-1804), engraver and printseller, to Mather Brown (1761- 1831), painter

Sir I have sent you a draft for thirty Pounds Guineas as you desire & will pay the rem. soon. You have had from me 1793 May 21st 21:0:0 1794 Apr 3 31:10:0 1795 May 19 31:10:0

84:0:0

Rem. due 21:0:0 £105 – 0-0 I will call on you at the first opportunity I am Sir Yr Humble Servt

137 Very little royal correspondence exists from this period, and this letter is not recorded in Arthur Aspinall’s Later Correspondence of George III (Cambridge, 1962-70) vol. i, pp. 397-9, where the letters jump from 18 Dec. 1788 to 23 Feb. 1789. George III was removed to Kew on 29 November 1788 and on 24 January a restraining chair was introduced. Throughout February 1789 his health steadily improved: on the 3rd he was allowed to shave himself for the first time in three months, on the 17th he was able to see the Lord Chancellor. On the 23rd he saw the Prince of Wales and Duke of York, and the following day the Prime Minister. On 26th George ordered that public bulletins on his health be discontinued. On 3 March he and the Queen took up life together again, and his recovery was celebrated on 9 March. On the 14th he returned to Windsor. See Christopher Wright, George III (London, 2005), pp. 121-3. Fanny Burney writes of meeting the King walking in Kew on 2 February 1789: Fanny Burney, Journals and Letters (London, 2001), p. 280.

42 eBLJ 2009, Article 8 J. M. W. Turner and his World: John Platt (1842-1902), a Late Victorian Extra-illustrator, and his Collection

John Boydell Cheapside May 19th 1795

Verso: Mr Mather Browne, Cavendish Square138

Vol. 1, f. 160. James Barry (1741-1806), painter, to Robert Fullerton Udny (1722-1802), art collector (draft)139

Dear Sir I have delivered ye prints140 to Mr Smith according to your order \when he called for them yesterday/& have added another print wch I beg you will accept of as it is connected with & rectifies a mistake in ye series both of ye pictures & prints and the & of ye pictures of that work at the Adelphi. Mr Smith has paid one the three guineas & has said a great \deal/ about \your/ admirable collection of prints & etchings, wch naturally enough were uppermost in his thoughts & wch he prefers to his own. It would make me very happy to have have an opportunity of paying my respects to you & Mrs Udney at Tulsington141 & to take a fresh draught of that satisfaction I never fail to receive from an inspection of the legitimate pictures of ye good old schools; but it is impossible at least for ye present my circumstances & much more my pursuits nail me to \ this / spot where I am \endeavouring to/ carrying on another work for ye publick even still more extensive than that at ye Adelphi, ye better to effect this & to steal it upon ye publick without their being once troubled with any mention of it until it come before them & every attention & means in my command have

138 The American artist Mather Brown (1761-1831) contributed an oil painting of ‘Richard II Resigning his Crown to Bolingbroke’ to Boydell’s Shakespeare’s Gallery, now lost but engraved by Benjamin Smith in 1801. This receipt matches accounts kept by Brown, as noted by Dorinda Evans, Mather Brown: Early American Artist in England (Middletown, 1982), p. 104. He was ‘not paid for his historical picture immediately, but, rather, he received instalments that were spread out over at least a four year period. The total sum was about the average amount that Boydell paid for such pictures, but it was less than half the amount that the engraver later received for producing his careful copy … Two of Brown’s receipts are in a nineteenth century album on him in the library of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The first reads “Received May 21st. 1793 of Messr. Boydell, Twenty Guineas upon amount of One Hundred Guineas for a Picture painted by me for them out of the Play of Richard the Second – Mather Brown.” On May 19, 1795, he signed another receipt: “Received of Mr. Alderman Boydell, the Sum of Thirty Guineas, (by the hands of his Servant Mr Robert Powell) being the 3d payment on Account, for the picture of Richard the 2d”. Probably there was a fourth payment since the third is not declared final.’ The collection also includes a receipt made out to Thomas Cadell on 28 March 1795 by John and Josiah Boydell for two guineas as the second subscription to the seventh number of the Shakespeare with text, large & small plates, and three guineas as the first subscription to the eighth number (vol. 12, f. 72), and Shakespeare Lottery ticket no. 603 (vol. 6, f. 69). 139 Published in Whitley, Artists and their Friends in England, 1700-1799 (London, 1928), vol. ii, pp. 230-1, without the erased passages and with corrected spelling. 140 Lot 59 of the twelfth day’s sale of part one (Lugt 6451) of Udny’s Prints, Books of Prints, Portfolios and Valuable Library, is described as ‘Eight – the pictures painted, or intended, by Barry, in the great room of the Society of Arts, etched by himself ’. (Part one 26 May 1802-10 June 1802 and part two (books and books of prints) 11 June 1802-13 June 1802, Lugt 6451 and 6464). 141 Teddington, Middlesex.

43 eBLJ 2009, Article 8 J. M. W. Turner and his World: John Platt (1842-1902), a Late Victorian Extra-illustrator, and his Collection been devoted to it. I without not daring to venture upon ye expense of a servant, I or to lessen my expenses by adm letting any part, of it I live \alone/ in a small house of 40 £ a year where there is a large \room/ wch had been a carpenter’s shop & would answer my purpose most admirably were I suffered to enjoy it in quiet, but whether owing to the \various/ influences of a combination wch has long annoyed me, or whether owing to the casual interferences of mere common thieves of wch there is no want, but I have about a fortnight since had my house broke open whilst I was out, before 10 a clock at night & robbed of a sum nearly as [illegible] something more than 200 £ I have lately had a severe rap on ye knuckels however thank God wch however tho it has something interrupted yet I thank God & my freinds, it will not \much/ cripple or prevent my carrying on this work wch I have so much at heart. As it would take up too much time & indeed as I am not in spirits to give you any idea what ye work is, wch could not be done without launching out pretty largely into ye constituent parts of art, into ye conduct of ye Greek and ye old Italians in their several modes and treatment of those parts & into those matters wch connect ye whole with ye age & country we live in: all this will be better reserved for your inspection, at least a good part of it you can see whenever you will favour me with a visit.

I am Sir with great esteem & respect your Most ever humble sevt J.B.

Castle St Oxford Market Jan 8 1795

Mr Udney [in pencil]

Vol. 3, f. 56. William Hodges (1744–1797), painter, to Ozias Humphrey (1742-1810), painter

Burton House, Brixham, Torbay, Dec 1 1795142

My Dear Humphrey

Various have \been/ the circumstances and occurrences which have prevented me from fulfilling my promise to you when I left London to write – the getting together in decent order my little cottage, and arrangements in and conducting a business which has become a considerable object to me – and the whole weight of which has rested on my weak shoulders – time to come I hope for some little respite – and I promise myself the pleasure again to meet my old friends – but I must first take care my present [illegible] don’t get the rickets – and when fairly on its legs – I may take my flight for a little time – The few excursions I have made from home has [sic] given me uncommon pleasure – the variety – the richness and the beauty of this country I think is not be parralleled in the Island of Great Britain – the verdure is here continued through the year – and that in its utmost variety at all season – I shall live in hopes some occasion or other will bring you once again into Devonshire to none I well and truly say could you be more welcome than under the roof of my house – at least I can show you Torbay – although not so large as the Bay of Naples – it yet possesses a beauty

142 Hodges left London for Torbay and attempted to establish a bank there in 1795. Ozias Humphrey’s papers were collected by his only son, William Upcott (1779-1845), antiquary, and are mainly in the Royal Academy. See The RA Archive online www.racollection.org.uk/, Jean Agnew, Report on the papers of Ozias Humphry, R.A. (1743-1810): in the custody of the Royal Academy of Arts, Burlington House, Piccadilly, London, Historical Manuscripts Commission (Series), vol. i, (London, 1972), and V. Remington, ‘Humphry, Ozias (1742–1810)’, ODNB [www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/14165, accessed 19 Aug 2009]

44 eBLJ 2009, Article 8 J. M. W. Turner and his World: John Platt (1842-1902), a Late Victorian Extra-illustrator, and his Collection

I have never before seen… and the river Dart is too high in character for me to say anything. I shall my dear Humphrey, be greatly obliged by your communication of anything relative to the arts – and to hear of the individual artists whom I have ever held in the highest respect for their talents and as gentlemen – and whatever success may attend you in your pursuits will and must be a real pleasure to your friend

W Hodges

You will be happy to hear that Mrs Hodges has enjoyed tolerable good health since she has been here – and who desires me to mention her best regards to you – WH

Ozias Humphrey Esq.

Vol. 10, f. 37. John Constable (1776-1837), Hyam Church – Suffolk, pencil on laid paper mounted on cardboard, 257 x 378 mm (fig. 16)

A light pencil sketch of Higham Church, Suffolk, undated, but assumed to be an early work.143 Initialled ‘I.C.’ within the image in pencil lower left, in a hand unlikely to be Constable’s, and annotated by John Platt on recto in pencil with the title, ‘By John Constable R.A.’ and ‘Signed ‘I.C.’ by John Constable’. The verso is annotated in an unknown hand in pencil ‘By J. Constable R.A., from the Collection of Eustace Constable, the painter’s grandson’. The catalogue of this sale includes Lot 30. Hyam Church, Suffolk, which is described as a framed drawing, unpriced. It was sold together with lot 29, Sketches for the large Salisbury (2) and lot 31, Studies of Figures - three in one frame, for 9 shillings to ‘Ward’ who also bought several other drawings.144 The extra-illustrated Thornbury also includes a draft introduction, dated 28 May 1832, by John Constable to English Landscape, the series of twenty-two mezzotints engraved by David Lucas under Constable’s supervision, and issued in parts from June 1830 to July 1832145 (figs 17, 18 and 19), and three mezzotints from the collection.

143 Peter Bowyer and Conal Shields came to the British Library and assessed the work following the announcement of its discovery. 144 Catalogue of the Works of John Constable R.A., comprising upwards of Seventy Pictures, drawings and Sketches in oil, and a large number of Drawings in pencil and chalk, From the collection of Eustace Constable, Esq. Grandson of the Painter sold by auction by Messrs. Christie, Manson & Woods, 8 King Street, St James’s Square, Thursday, April 16, 1896. Email correspondence with Marijke Booth, Archives Assistant, Christie’s Archives Department, 17/04/2007. 145 Vol. 10, ff. 38-40. See Felicity Myrone, ‘Introductions to Constable’s English Landscape’, Print Quarterly, xxiv: 3 (September 2007), pp. 273-7.

45 eBLJ 2009, Article 8 J. M. W. Turner and his World: John Platt (1842-1902), a Late Victorian Extra-illustrator, and his Collection , pencil on laid paper mounted on cardboard, 257 x 378 mm, Tab.438.a.1, vol. 10, f. 37. 10, f. vol. Tab.438.a.1, 257 x 378 mm, , pencil on mounted on laid paper cardboard, Hyam Church – Suffolk Church Hyam John Constable (1776-1837), Constable John Fig. 16. Fig.

46 eBLJ 2009, Article 8 J. M. W. Turner and his World: John Platt (1842-1902), a Late Victorian Extra-illustrator, and his Collection

Fig. 17, 18 and 19. John Constable (1776-1837), manuscript draft of the introduction to English Landscape. Tab.438.a.1, vol.10, ff. 38-40.

47 eBLJ 2009, Article 8 J. M. W. Turner and his World: John Platt (1842-1902), a Late Victorian Extra-illustrator, and his Collection

Fig. 18.

48 eBLJ 2009, Article 8 J. M. W. Turner and his World: John Platt (1842-1902), a Late Victorian Extra-illustrator, and his Collection

Fig. 19.

49 eBLJ 2009, Article 8 J. M. W. Turner and his World: John Platt (1842-1902), a Late Victorian Extra-illustrator, and his Collection

Vol. 3, f. 53. Joseph Farington (1747-1821), landscape painter and diarist, Rosslyn Castle, 22 Sept. 1801, pencil and white chalk on brown laid paper; 260 x 330 mm (fig. 20)

Farington records visiting Rosslyn Castle and taking this view in 1801:

Tuesday Septr. 22 …. At Eleven we made an excursion to Rosslin Castle 7 miles from Edinburgh, a place much admired by the people of this Country, at least it is much talked of by them. – The situation of the Castle is fine and there is very picturesque matter abt. the place, but whatever the Scotch may say in admiration of it, no deserted spot can be more neglected than this as to accommodation or means of seeing it to advantage. The walk we traced was a dirty & difficult path, and the underwood has been allowed to grow so generally that it was with great pains we were able to get to any points from which we could see the Castle & water at the same time… In short if I may so express myself Rosslin is a place that has been allowed to run to weed, and its principal beauties are in consequence so difficult to be seen that it is probable few go there who have a full idea of it – Offley accompanied me in exploring up to the knees in wet grass and holding by the bushes the sides of the dell to get a fair view of the Castle which we at last obtained and made each a drawing146.

Signed and dated by the artist in pencil; John Platt has written ‘Original Drawing by Joseph Farington R.A. ROSLYN CASTLE’ in pencil on the backing board.

Vol. 11, f. 136. William Makepeace Thackeray (1811-1863), novelist

On letterhead paper, stamped: The Cornhill Magazine, Smith Elder & Co.

36 Onslow Sq. S.W.

March 11

My dear Professor

What flower grows on Putney Heath in June? Give me the scientific name for a pretty one please.

Also the medical name for soda water.

Yours ever

WMT

146 Kenneth Garlick and Angus Macintyre, The Diary of Joseph Farington, vol. v, August 1801-March 1803 (New Haven, 1979), pp.1629-30.

50 eBLJ 2009, Article 8 J. M. W. Turner and his World: John Platt (1842-1902), a Late Victorian Extra-illustrator, and his Collection , pencil and white chalk on brown laid paper; 260 x 330 mm laid paper; chalk on, pencil and white brown Rosslyn Castle, Sept. 22 1801 Rosslyn Castle, Joseph Farington (1747-1821), landscape painter and diarist, (1747-1821), landscape Farington Joseph Fig. 20. Fig. 53. 3, f. vol. Tab.438.a.1,

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Vol. 4, f. 54. Tom Taylor (1817-1880), playwright and comic writer

4 Hare Court Temple

My dear madam

You may hear of an involuntary change of hats, which took place after your most pleasant party. If you should, I am a party person concerned, finding myself with a half-foreign looking broad-brimmed production of Mssrs Wilkinson no 80 Strand. Should the owner of it apply to you for information in restitution at ‘the Slums’ be good enough to say that his beaver is in my perception [?] to [illegible word] be returned in exchange for mine, which bears the name of ‘Downe’s Strand.’

I think of the two my hat is the best – I am the bolder to write to you as no imputation can attach to me.

Have I made an exchange with Freiligrath?147

I can assure you, as I believe you will be glad to hear it, that Tennyson148 enjoyed himself last night extremely and said emphatically it was the pleasantest London party he had ever assisted at.

Very truly yours Tom Taylor

Thursday

147 Ferdinand Freiligrath (17 June 1810-18 March 1876), German writer. 148 Alfred first Baron Tennyson (1809-1892), poet.

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