- Also known as
-
Dr Charles Burney
-
primary name: Burney, Charles
- Details
- individual; academic/intellectual; British; Male
- Life dates
- 1757-1817
- Address
- Hammersmith (1791)
- Biography
- Classical scholar, son of Charles Burney the historian of music, and brother of the novelist Fanny Burney. In 1818 his library was acquired by Parliament for £13,500 and deposited in the British Museum (now in the BL); it includes his important collection of newspapers.
His prints and drawings, to the number of 7000 and valued at £450 (see P.R.Harris, History of the BM library, p.38), mostly but far from entirely of theatrical interest, were placed in the Department of Prints and Drawings. Not being a gift, no special register was made or stamp put on them at the time, and it is now impossible to identify them all accurately in the P&D collection.
Most of the prints were heavily pasted into albums. Of these ten remain together in bound form, with portraits of actors/actresses in alphabetical order (numbered from 1 to 10, and inventoried as K,57 to 66). Vol.11 (Ee,3) of portraits of Garrick no longer exists: these are now incorporated with the rest of the collection of his portraits. Vol. 12 (Ee,4) is the so-called 'Garrick Topography', which was rearranged in 2012 and is now placed in two post-binders in case 1. Vol.13 (R,10) contained 98 large prints relating to plays in which Garrick acted, and is now distributed in the main collection. Other non-theatrical portraits were arranged alphabetically in two volumes (K,67 and K,68); these have since also been distributed in the main portrait collection. Other prints from Burney were placed in Ee,1 (mezzotint portraits, non-theatrical) and 5, T,16 (large prints) and in Y,1,3 and 4. Some were placed elsewhere.
- Bibliography
- DNB
There is a manuscript volume listing the Burney portraits in P&D in the order in which they appear in the volumes listed in the 1837 inventory, K,57 to 68 (Desk D,2.5). Burney's own manuscript catalogue of his collection (c.1807) is in the P&D library at press marks Cd.4.18(1 to 3), and (theatrical portrait listing) Cd.4.19. This catalogue includes non-portrait prints that were also transferred to P&D and which were not listed in Desk D,2.5.
See Lugt 315 for the oval stamp put by the BM on parts of his collection at a later date.
