Description
Description of Sir William Hamilton's Collection of Engravings of Antique Vases
These magnificent engravings are hand-colored engravings from the work entitled Sir William Hamilton's Collection of Engravings of Antique Vases. Sir William Hamilton was an ambassador from Great Britain to the Kingdom of Naples when that city was enjoying its Golden Age as well as a lover of the arts. This position, along with access to the profuse excavations in Herculaneum, Pompeii, and southern Italy which was formerly occupied by Greeks, allowed his love and collections, especially of Greek vases, to grow. He bought the Porcinari collection, a noted collection of Greek vases, and had them drawn and engraved by Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein before reselling them to the British Museum in London. The first four volumes of Tischbein's magnificent engravings were published in the late 1700s. Many of these prints are based on Greek Mythology and feature various subjects including horses and chariots, nudes, pottery, soldiers, weapons, royalty, and mythical animals. They are on fine woven paper that measures ~ 23 1/2" by 17 1/2".