Collection history - the nineteenth century
Antiquities other than sculpture continued to accrue. Townley's
vases, terracottas, bronzes, coins and sealstones came in 1814 and
especially fine bronzes were bequeathed by Richard Payne Knight in
1824. In 1836 vases were bought at the sale of Edmé-Antoine Durand
that had come out of Etruscan tombs in central Italy on the estates
of Lucien Bonaparte, younger brother of Napoleon. These Etruscan
tombs were to be a rich source of both Greek and Etruscan
antiquities and in the late 1830s and 40s the Museum made several
major acquisitions from various dealers and collectors. Besides
Italy, there were also collections put together in Greece and Asia
Minor, including that of Thomas Burgon who offered his antiquities
to the Museum in 1842.
Sir William Hamilton was one of many British diplomatic
representatives abroad whose enlightened interest in the ancient
cultures of the countries they visited were to expand the
collections of the British Museum. They included one of Hamilton's
successors at Naples, Sir William Temple, whose collection was
acquired in 1856. There was also Lord Elgin (1766-1841) and Sir
Stratford Canning (1786-1880), a successor of Elgin at
Constantinople, through whom the frieze of the Mausoleum at
Halikarnassos was acquired in 1846.
The 1840s were remarkable also for the excavations conducted in
Lykia by Charles Fellows, with the permission of the Turkish
authorities. In 1842 and again in 1844 the museum acquired parts of
several major tombs that Fellows had excavated in the Lykian
capital at Xanthos.
This was the first of a series of controlled excavations carried
out on behalf of the Museum with local permission, most of which
brought important architectural sculpture. They include those of
Nathan Davis at Carthage (1856-58), Charles Newton in Asia Minor
(1857-59), R. Murdoch Smith and E. A. Porcher at Cyrene in North
Africa (1860-61), R.P. Pullan at Priene in Asia Minor (1868-69) and
J. T. Wood at Ephesus (1864-74). Smaller-scale finds came from the
excavations of Sir Alfred Biliotti at Ialysos on the island of
Rhodes (1868-1870), and these were significant as the first
substantial group of Greek Bronze Age objects to enter the British
Museum. Further prehistoric material came with the collection
formed by James Woodhouse on Corfu, and bequeathed by him in
1866.
Alessandro Castellani, a member of the family of jewellers in
Rome famous for work in 'archaeological' style, was the source of
many pieces acquired in 1865 and in the 1870's. This material
included not only examples of very fine ancient jewellery, but also
important sculptures in marble and bronze and a very large
collection of Greek vases. Pieces from the Pourtalès collection
also arrived in 1865, while outstanding gems and cameos came from
the collection formed by two successive Ducs de Blacas, purchased
in1866.
Material collected from Greece in the second half of the 19th
century included much that came via Charles Merlin, British Consul
in Athens: an active collector and dealer from whom a number of
terracotta figurines of the 'Tanagra' type were purchased.
Substantial acquisition of material from Cyprus began with some
pieces bought from the ethnographer Henry Christy in 1865 (Christy
later became a major donor of ethnographic material) and from D. E.
Colnaghi, British Consul on the island, in 1866, while 1872 saw the
purchase of material from the excavations of Robert (later Sir
Robert) Hamilton Lang in the sanctuary of Apollo at Idalion.
Finds from the excavations of General Luigi Palma di Cesnola
were purchased in 1871 and 1876, while material found by Max
Ohnefalsch Richter in the sanctuary of Artemis at Achna arrived in
1883. The British Museum conducted excavations between 1893 and
1899 at Amathus, Kourion, Enkomi, Maroni, Hala Sultan Tekké,
Klavdia and Kouklia, and these greatly enriched the holdings of
Cypriot material.