Catalogue of the Pictures forming the Collection of Sir Charles Tennant, Bart., of 40, Grosvenor Square, and the Glen, Innerleithen. [Compiled by C. Morland Agnew].
68 collotype plates. 130 unnumbered pages. Large & thick 4to, orig. green cloth (most leaves sprung due to the use of gutta percha), upper cover gilt, t.e.g. [London: Bradbury, Agnew & Co.], 1896.
The scarce privately printed catalogue of this collection of highly important 18th- and 19th-century English pictures collected by Charles Tennant (1823-1906), the Scottish industrialist. He purchased the bulk of these works from the Agnews, the family of art dealers. “In 1853 Tennant bought The Glen estate in Peeblesshire. He remodelled the house into a baronial mansion resembling Glamis, and improved the grounds extensively. He also amassed a notable library and a collection of pictures, including ten by Reynolds, six by Romney, five each by Gainsborough and Turner, and three by Constable. His judgement as a collector was warped by comparing his possessions with other people’s, although he found a real and almost naïve pleasure in sharing his collection with others. He enjoyed praise, and was flattered by his appointment as a trustee of the National Gallery in 1894. The Glen was a scene of boundless hospitality, where the intimacies of Victorian family life were relieved of its most irksome restraints…He was one of the earliest provincial industrialists to become a major metropolitan figure, and held magnificent parties at his great house in Grosvenor Square.”–ODNB.
The 68 collotype reproductions of pictures in the collection were made by P. Dujardin of Paris.
Nice copy, but with, as always, many leaves sprung. Inscribed by Tennant: “To the Countess of Wemyss from Charles Tennant, March 1896.”.
Price: $1,500.00
Item ID: 6052
