Treasures of Art in Great Britain

Book excerpt: The set owned by Sir George Scharf, director of the National Portrait Gallery. Scharf has annotated and interleaved these pages with manuscripts and letters received, newspaper clippings, and printed pamphlets, in effect producing an unpublished corrected and enlarged second edition. In a fair copy of a letter to John Murray (1855 March 16), Scharf cites numerous errata and inaccuracies in Waagen. Scharf had access to the great historic homes and private collections of art in England and based his revisions on first-hand knowledge. Newspaper clippings record the loss, dispersal or sale of the collections originally surveyed by Waagen. Letters received from connoisseurs, collectors, and artists include Lord Cowper, Lady Louisa Egerton, Frederic George Stephens, W.A. Scott Robertson, George Redford, the Earl of Ellesmere, R.S. Holford, and Sir Charles Lock Eastlake. Printed materials include "A Catalogue of the Orleans' Italian pictures ..." (London, 1798) and the text of Scharf's paper on the paintings in the collection of the Society of Antiquaries of London (1862 Nov. 20). The first volume of the set contains a dedication to Scharf from the translator, Lady Eastlake.