Memoirs of Painting, with a Chronological History of the Importation of Pictures by the Great...
xvi, 364 pp.; 2 p.l., 397 pp. Two vols. 8vo (220 x 140 mm.), 19th-century polished calf (joints a trifle rubbed), spines gilt, red & green morocco lettering-pieces on spines. London: R. Ackermann, 1824.
First edition of an essential firsthand history of the mass British acquisitions of Old Masters in the first decades of the 19th century. “William Buchanan (1777-1864), a Scottish lawyer turned art dealer, was to benefit most from the turmoil caused by the Napoleonic Wars, although he started too late to participate in the Orléans sales. He employed mainly James Irvine of Drum, Aberdeenshire, in Italy and... More