Catalogue of the Bridgewater and Ellesmere Collections of Pictures and Statuary at Bridgewater House, Cleveland...
xx, 76 pp. 8vo, orig. green cloth, upper cover lettered in gilt. [Manchester: Chas. Sever, Lithographer], 1900.
The rare catalogue describing a vast and storied collection. The collection had its beginnings with the peculiar story of Francis Egerton (not the above), the 3rd Duke of Bridgewater (1736-1803), also known as the “Canal Duke.” “The Duke of Bridgewater was one of the great and eccentric success stories of English history. Like that other ducal oddity, the 5th Duke of Portland, he was rejected in love and remained a bachelor. Bridgewater had one big idea: to construct a canal from Manchester to... More