[CHRISTIE’S – FOUNTAINE.]
Catalogue of the celebrated Fountaine Collection of Majolica, Henri II. Ware, Palissy Ware, Nevers Ware, Limoges Enamels, Carvings in Ivory, Hone Stone and Rock Crystal, Greek and Roman Coins, ancient Armour, &c., &c., removed from Narford Hall, Norfolk …
London, [William Clowes & Sons for] Christie, Manson, & Woods, 16 June 1884.
8vo, pp. 66, [2], with carbon print photographic frontispiece and 22 carbon print photographic plates; a few leaves loose, crude repair to inner margin of p. [2], margins dust-stained and chipped; uncut in publisher’s printed boards, yellow endpapers; rebacked, a little worn at extremities; ink ownership inscription ‘Doulton & Co | Lambeth Art Pottery | 215’ to front free endpaper (see below), partially priced in ink.
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Catalogue of the celebrated Fountaine Collection of Majolica, Henri II. Ware, Palissy Ware, Nevers Ware, Limoges Enamels, Carvings in Ivory, Hone Stone and Rock Crystal, Greek and Roman Coins, ancient Armour, &c., &c., removed from Narford Hall, Norfolk …
An early photographically illustrated auction catalogue, partially priced, for the sale of the Fountaine collection of ceramics, enamels, and relief works.
The Fountaine collection, formed in the early eighteenth century by Andrew Fountaine (1676–1753) of Narford Hall, was long celebrated as ‘almost unequalled in Europe’ (Marryat, p. 79), and its dispersal across a four-day sale in 1884 ‘saw the formation of a “syndicate”, whose sole aim was to purchase prize items and offer them, at the price paid, to the government’ (ODNB). This illustrated issue of the catalogue, with twenty-two carbon print photographs of individual lots and a photographic frontispiece showing the China Closet at Narford Hall, is an unusually lavish production.
Provenance: Doulton & Co. of Lambeth, noted for their wide range of ceramic wares. The company expanded in 1884 by purchasing the Pinder, Bourne, & Co. factory in Staffordshire.
See Marryat, A History of Pottery and Porcelain (1857).
