tour 19 of 20
Enlightenment: Classifying the World
Bronze goose
This goose was once a lamp lid. Similar lids
with figures in the round first appeared in the Hellenistic period
and were popular in Roman
times.
It was once part of
the collection of coins, medals and other items owned by
William
Courten, which he kept in his rooms at the
Temple, London. This is probably the goose that Courten acquired
from a Mr Bagford.
Courten's
surviving manuscript inventories of his collection are in code. The
goose appears as 'I goose Rv-a-, Gv, fv\-)., at
Paul's', meaning 'one Roman Goose found at
St Paul's'. Courten referred to Bagford as
'iagfvp'.
Courten
later bequeathed his collection to
Sir Hans
Sloane. The two had been friends since their
youth, probably having met in Montpelier, where Courten studied
natural sciences. Courten's studies may have attracted him
to the goose, and he was also interested in collecting botanical
specimens. Courten's was the first and most important
collection that Sloane incorporated into his own, and coins and
medals continued to be a major part of the collection. The goose
was one of a small group of Greek, Roman, Etruscan and Egyptian
artefacts that Sloane owned. These were not collected for their
artistic quality, but for what they revealed of the customs of
ancient peoples.