The executors' account book and the dispersal of Sir Peter Lely's collection

Journal of the History of Collections

Volumn 8, Issue 1, 1996, Pages 15-51

  Dethloff, Diana ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON   (United Kingdom)

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EID: 62649169279     PISSN: 09546650     EISSN: 14778564     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1093/jhc/8.1.15     Document Type: Review

References (135)

1. Gerrit von Uylenburgh, born c. 1628 in Amsterdam, died c. 1690 in England, landscape artist, dealer and briefly Surveyor of Charles II's pictures. See O. Millar, The Queen's Pictures (London, 1977), pp. 79, 81-2, 85.
2. Charles Beale, notebook for 1677; Bodleian Library, Oxford, MS Rawl. 8° 572.
3. R. North, Lives of the Norths, ed. A. Jessop (London, 1890) 1, p. 408.
4. According to North, Sir Francis's younger brother and one of Lely's three executors, '... but all his hang-bys disappointed of their legacy's, ffor wee found the instructions or shell of a codicill my brother had given him, but none was ever made, so no small legacy's went out'. British Library (henceforth BL) Add. MS 32, 506, fol. 177r. (See note 14 below.)
5. Public Record Office (hereafter PRO), PCC, PROB/11,365 fols. 45v-47.
6. BL, Add. MS 32,506, fol. 176v.
7. BL, Add. MS 32,506. The manuscript was published as The Autobiography of The Hon. Roger North, ed. A. Jessop (London, 1887). Jessop refers to the section dealing with Lely's estate as Chapter XV; 'The Affairs of Sir Peter Lely'. A new edition is currently being prepared by Peter Millard.
8. BL, Add. MS 32,506, fol. 177v.
9. Parry Walton (died 1702) was reputedly trained by Robert Walker, although only one surviving work by him, a still-life, is known (see Mr. Cartwright's Pictures, exh. cat., Dulwich Picture Gallery (London, 1987), no. 76, p. 78).
10. 'JOHN BAPTIST GASPARS commonly called Lelys Baptist,... Sr Peter Lely being Receiv'd for his Majesty's principal Painter, he imploy'd Baptist to paint his postures, which he perform'd very well, & after his Death he did the same for Mr. Riley, and afterwards for Sr. Godfrey Kneller. this Baptist was a grate Judge of Painting, and likewise eminent for his designs in Tapistry, having been an admirable Draftsman in the Academy. He dy'd in London about 1692 & lies buried at St. Jame's, see Vertue Notebooks II (Walpole Society 20) (1931-2), p. 135.
11. Walpole, op. cit. (note 16), II, p. 24.
12. BL, Add. MS 16,174, fol. 29v. Walton's payment also included 'varnishing the collection'. A porter was paid 1s.6d. for 'washing & carrying pictures'. Both Walton and Gaspars had earlier valued pictures bought by the Marquis of Worcester at an 'outcry' at Somerset House in 1674 (QA 3/1). Information kindly given by Lucy Abel Smith.
13. Keeper of the Pictures, Drawings &c., 13 May 1690: PRO, LC 3/3. (15) & 3/4, 3/31 (60) & 32 (58), 3/57 (37); BL, Add. MS 27,898. Styled 'Keeper of the pictures, drawings and other rarities and antiquities' at £100 from Lady Day last, June 2 1690: PRO, LC 3/53. I am grateful to Sheila de Bellaigue, Registrar of the Royal Archives, Windsor Castle, for these references.
14. 'We put into his house Mr Sonnius his friend, yt knew most of his concerns'. BL, Add. MS 32,506, fol. 178r.
15. The other mourners were Mr Skipworth, Mr Smith, Mrs Fane, three menservants, three maidservants and the three executors. BL, Add. MS 16,174, fol. 6.
16. For an account of this sale, see M. Kirby Talley, 'Extracts from the executors Account-Book of Sir Peter Lely, 1679-1691: an account of the contents of Sir Peter's studio', Burlington Magazine 120 (1978), pp. 745-9.
17. BL, Add. MS 32,506, fol. 178v.
18. '£2 to Mr Fobert for printing, publishing and dispensing the Advertisements at Paris' and '10s for the Advertisement in Holland'. BL, Add. MS 16,174, fol. 79v.
19. See Editorial: 'Sir Peter Lely's collection', Burlington Magazine 83 (1943), pp. 185-91 where this 1682 sale catalogue is published.
20. Lankrink, like Walton, was paid £155.7s.4d. for managing the outcry. There is also an additional payment of £29 made to Lankrink 'for his pains in Inventorying & placing pictures, drawings etc'. BL, Add. MS 16,174, fol. 30.
21. 'We had parted out a place with chairs for quality, the rest of the ordinance was a table and forms'. BL, Add. MS 32,506, fol. 178v.
22. See note 28.
23. Vertue Notebooks IV (Walpole Society 24) (1935-6), pp. 168-9 quotes from one of the now lost Beale Notebooks '20 Feb 1671/2 my worthy and kind Friend Dr. Belk. caused the Excellent picture of Endymion Porter his Lady and 3 sonnes all together done by Sr. Anto: Vandyke to be brought to my house yt my deare heart might have opportunity to study it. & coppy wt. shee thought fitt of it.' Also '20 April 1672. Mr. Lely was here (meaning (I think) to see Mrs. Beal and her workes) with Mr. Gibson and Mr Skipworth to see us... Her coppy in little after Endimion Porter his Lady and 3 Son's he commended extraordinarily and sd (to use his own words) it was painted like Vandyke himself in little and that it was the best coppy he ever saw after Vandyke - also he very well liked her two Coppyes in great of Mr Porters little son Phil.' This picture was possibly not yet in Lely's collection as Beale records in his Notebook for 17 May 1672 (again quoted by Vertue) 'Mr. Porters peice by V Dyke returnd to ye Ld Chamberlain.'
24. When visiting the house in January 1686 Evelyn wrote: 'for painting and furniture there was nothing more glorious in England'. The Diary of John Evelyn, ed. G. de Beer (Oxford, 1955), IV, p. 497.
25. 'On 20th Instant, when Montague House was on Fire, there was lost 33 pictures, painted in Black and White, After the life by Sir Anthony Van Dyck being the originals that the Prints are Grav'd after, and of the same size, being without the Frames, about 9 inches and a quarter high and 7 and a quarter broad. Whoever shall give notice of them to Mr Edward Scawen at the 2 Green Posts over against Montague House shall have 10l or for any Number of them, a proportionable Reward'. London Gazette, Monday 25 January - Thursday 28 January 1685 (Old Style). Michael Jaffé, in Tessa Murdoch (ed.), Boughton House: The English Versailles (London, 1992), pp. 79-80, quotes this reference, but states incorrectly that Montagu's purchase at Lely's sale was 33 grisailles, whereas Lely's executors Account Book clearly records the purchase of 37 grisailles by Montagu for £115.
26. Information from Tessa Murdoch.
27. BL, Add. MS 32,504, fol. 52. This purchase is not included, in the Account Book list of pictures sold at the 1682 sale, but does appear under payments made by North to the Estate, 'For a picture of a Youth and a Ram sold at this first outcry to Sir Peter Parker. 4.00'. BL, Add. MS 16,174, fol. 82v.
28. Hendrik de Fromantiou (1633/4-1694).
29. See Thieme-Becker, Allegemeines Lexicon der Bildenden Künstler (Leipzig, 1916), vol. XII, p. 519.
30. PRO, SP Entry Book 56, p. 88.
31. Richard Gibson (1615-90) was a miniaturist and friend of Lely. He was closely associated with the Pembroke family from whom he still received an annuity in 1677, the year he left for Holland with Mary Princess of Orange to take up the post of her drawing master. See J. Murdoch, J. Murrell, P.J. Noon and R. Strong, The English Miniature (New Haven and London, 1981), pp. 132-5.
32. William Gibson (c.1655-1703). B. Buckeridge ('An essay towards an English school of painters', in R. de Piles, The Art of Painting and the Lives and Characteristics of above 300 of the Most Eminent Painters (London, 1706), p. 378) states that he trained as a miniaturist with his uncle Richard Gibson and was also influenced by Lely; 'His greatest excellency' according to Buckeridge 'lay in his copies after the last two of those masters, whose manner he made it his chief endeavour to imitate, and wherein he was not altogether unsuccessful. He became an eminent limner and drew great numbers of portraits for many of the best rank'. Only two miniatures by him, however, were known to the late Jim Murrell (correspondence with author), Henry Cavendish, Earl of Ogle (Welbeck Abbey) and Duke of Monmouth (private collection). See Appendix IV for details of his collection.
33. Mary Princess of Orange's Account Book 1678-1689 (Royal Library, Windsor) records three specific payments to Gibson; on the first page entitled 'This is an account of what Bills I paid at my first coming in the year 1678', 'To Mr Gibson for Pictures wch he drew for me 277 glds 10 st'; for January 1678/79 'To Mr Gibson for a little picture 126 glds'; and for Nov 27 1682 'To Mr Gibson according to his bill 886 glds 6 st'. After this very large sum there are no further recorded payments to Gibson although it has always been assumed he returned to England with Mary.
34. I. Bignamini, 'George Vertue, art historians and art institutions in London, 1689-1768', Walpole Society 54 (1988), p. 40.
35. Six other buyers at Lely's 1682 sale - Grinling Gibbons, Richard Graham, Robert Huckle, Michael Rosse, John Riley and Colonel Seymour - were also to become members ofthe Virtuosi of St. Luke.
36. Oxford, Bodleian Library, Gough Maps 46 (239), p. 169.
37. For Lankrink's sale catalogue see Burlington Magazine 86 (1945). pp. 29-35.
38. Michael Rosse, son of Christopher Rosse, a wealthy court jeweller. See Appendix IV.
39. 'Lankrink ... at Sir P. Lely's death bought a great number of things of the Collect by the help of Mr Austens purse'. Venue, op. cit. (note 17), II (Walpole Society 20 (1931-3O, p. 69).
40. Also 'Journal van Constantijn Huygens den Zoon', in Historisch Gezelschap Werken Nieuwe Serie (1862), 25, p. 465.
41. 'Bought and parted with againe The Europa of Sr P. Lely to his son'. BL, Add MS 32,504, fol. 49.
42. Vertue Notebooks IV, op. cit. (note 33), p. 152.
43. London Gazette 8 December-12 December 1692.
44. Francis Child (1642-1713), goldsmith at Temple Bar (London Gazette 14-18 April 1687), banker, founder of Child's Bank and Lord Mayor of London in 1699.
45. BL, Add. MS 32,506, fol. 184r.
46. BL, Add. MS 16,174, fol. 61v.
47. See R. Grassby, The English Gentleman in Trade: The life and works of Sir Dudley North, 1641-1691 (Oxford, 1994).
48. John Michael Wright (1617-94), portrait painter and dealer. During this period the house seems to have become very' dilapidated, and £100 was spent on 'repayring the house which was very much out of order, reducing the back stairs to Stables, making up ye windows in the painting roome, wainscott borders for carrying hangings and making good the wainscott in the great roome': BL, Add. MS 16,174, fols. 81v-82v.
49. Fritz Lugt, Les Marques de collections des dessins et d'estampes (Amsterdam, 1921), records three 'P.L' marks (Lugt 2092-4). The Account Book records '4 shillings for a letter stamp' and '3 shillings for a brass stamp' (BL, Add. MS 16,174, fol. 14).
50. BL, Add. MS 16,174, fol. 79v.
51. Idem., and fol. 81v.
52. BL, Add. MS 32,506, fol. 184v.
53. Idem.
54. BL, Add. MS 16,174, fol. 85v.
55. BL, Add. MS 32,506, fol. 179r.
56. BL, Add. MS 32,506, fol. 185r.
57. Huygens, op. cit. (note 48), 23 , p. 73.
58. See J. Wood, Rubens in Oxford, exh. cat., The Picture Gallery, Christ Church (Oxford, 1988), p. 12.
59. See also Kristen Lohse Belkin, 'The classification of Rubens's drawings collection', Wallraf-Richartz-Jahrbuch 55 (1994), pp. 105-14.
60. Huygens, who met Davenant looking through drawings at Walton's on 20 February 1693/94, refers to him as 'an attorney': Huygens, op. cit. (note 48), 25, p. 316.
61. On 13, 15, 17 and 20 January: Huygens, op. cit. (note 48), 25, pp. 60, 62-63 and 65.
62. BL, Add MS 16,174, fol. 110r.
63. Huygens, op. cit. (note 48), 25, pp. 433-4.
64. For a discussion of Lely's collections of drawings, see D. Dethloff, 'Patterns of collecting drawings in late seventeenth and early eighteenth-century England', in Drawings: Masters and Methods, Raphael to Redon. Papers presented to the Ian Woodner Master Drawings Symposium at the Royal Academy of Arts, ed. D. Dethloff (London, 1992). pp. 197-207.
65. BL, Add. MS 32,506, fol. 188r.
66. Buckeridge, op. cit. (note 41).
67. Dethloff, op. cit. (note 78).
68. BL, Add MS 32,507, fol.s 36-7. Ferrerie may well be Dirk Freres (Ferraris), 1643-93. Born in Enkhuysen, Holland, he studied in Rome, then returned to Holland and practised as a history-painter and draughtsman. I am grateful to Kate Gibson for suggesting this.
69. See E. Croft-Murray, Decorative Painting in England 1537-1837 (London, 1962), I, p. 247.
70. Vertue records 'in 1678/9 Mr. Frerres a history painter came over into England (by encouragement from Sr. P. Lilly) who had been some years in Italy ... expecting to have painted for the King those works at windsor, which Verrio had already, or before hand got orders to go about, this Frerres haveing wherewith to live on without Painting return'd again to Holland soon after ...' Vertue, op. cit. (note 34), I (Walpole Society 18 (1929-30), p. 71).
71. The Diary of Samuel Pepys, ed. R. Latham and W. Matthews (London, 1995), VIII, p. 129.
72. Burlington Magazine 83 (1943), pp. 185-91. Lely told Charles Beale on 14 June 1677 that 'several prints after Raphael Urbin in his Collection cost him 7 & yt li a print at best hand': Bodleian Library, Oxford, MS Rawl. 8°. 572.
73. This is that which was sold at Sir P.L. sale for 100l,'; J. Richardson, An Account of the Statues, Bas-reliefs, Drawings, and Pictures, in Italy, etc. with remarks (London, 1722). From Flinck the drawing went to the 2nd Duke of Devonshire and is still at Chatsworth.
74. For the cost of prints during this period see A. Griffiths 'The print collection of William Courten, Sloane Ms.3961', in Landmarks in Print Collecting: Connoisseurs and Donors at the British Museum since 1573, ed. A. Griffiths, exh. cat. British Museum (London, 1996).
75. 20 October 1662 '... and then to see in what pomp his table was laid for himself to go to dinner' (Pepys, op. cit. (note 83), III, p. 230).
76. As for example in September 1670 when George Freeman, painter to the King, petitioned for the place of chief painter and designer of tapestry. Lely certified 'that he has seen several drawings of the petitioner's and believes him to be the best fitted that he knows, to be employed in making designs for tapestry, prints or any other inventions belonging to an historical painter, and that he would employ him himself before any other on such occasions' (23 September 1670). PRO, SP Dom., Car. 11,279, No. 191.
77. 'His lordship had free access to these [and other items from Lely's collection] which, with the occasional comments of that great artist, were sufficient to establish (if not a critic) a true lover of painting'. North, op. cit. (note 4), I, p. 393.
78. I am grateful to Antony Griffiths for drawing to my attention the existence of this sale catalogue, a xerox copy of which is in the Department of Prints and Drawings, British Museum.
79. A. E. Popham, Catalogue of the Drawings of Parmigianino (New Haven and London, 1971), lists 101 Parmigianino drawings with the 'P.L.' stamp, although this volume is not mentioned, so it may well have been dismantled. However, a number of 'P.L.'-stamped Parmigianinos are small and of an unusual size, as if they had been trimmed down from larger sheets of studies.
80. A key 'for the press to the prints' was purchased by the executors for 1s. 6d. in January 1682 (Old Style). BL, Add. MS 16,174, foll. 29v.
81. Pepys, op. cit. (note 83), VI, p. 102.
82. References in the Account Book to the Great Room, a work room, bedchamber, dining room, parlour, room over the parlour, room behind the parlour and a closet, suggest that the house was quite spacious; but with a frontage of only 29 feet, most of the rooms, with the exception the Great Room, would have been quite small. I am grateful to Dianne Duggan for this information.
83. House of Lords, Main Papers relating to the King's Goods, May 1660 to 11 June 1660, no. 86. Lely lists his purchases thus: 'A Picture of the Kinge, the Duke of York and the Princess Royall; A Picture of Cupid and Psiche; A Picture of an old Man with a shell in his hand; A Picture made by Carecelly; A Picture of Tirbrugh; A Picture of an Hermit; A Picture of Fettey; A Lanskip of Bredenburgh; A Frame of a Picture; A Statue of Helen; A Centaur in Brass; Foure Heads in Marble; The Trionke of a body in Marble.' and ends with the statement: 'These Picturs and Statues, bought of severall persons are now in my posesion.' I am grateful to Jeremy Wood for sending me this reference.
84. See S. Gleissner, 'Reassembling a royal art collection for the restored King of Great Britain', Journal of the History of Collections 6 no. 1 (1994), p. 104.
85. According to Charles Beale, Lely had told him 'Rimbrandt had given 100ll for ten prints and that himself had most of these ten prints in his Collection'. Bodleian Library, Oxford, MS Rawl. 8°.572.
86. Evelyn, op. cit. (note 34), IV, p. 312.
87. See J. Wood, 'Van Dyck's "Cabinet de Titien": the contents and dispersal of his collection', Burlington Magazine 132 (1990), p. 686, note 52.
88. Sir Peter Lely, exh. cat. National Portrait Gallery (London, 1978), p.8.
89. BL, Add. MS 32,507, fols. 39-40.
90. For information on late seventeenth-century sales in London, see I. Pears, The Discovery of Painting in England. The growth of interest in the arts in England 1680-1768 (New Haven and London, 1988)
91. especially chapter three entitled 'The art market'; and D. Dethloff, 'Selling art this auctionary way in late seventeenth-century London', Christie's International (Oct/Nov 1993), pp. 3-4.
92. See Millar, op. cit. (note 1).
93. See J. M. Montias, 'Art dealers in 17th century' Netherlands', Simiolus 18 (1988). Montias's research suggests that a dealer such as Uylenburgh was supplying a wealthy clientele with high quality, original Dutch, Flemish and Italian pictures.
94. As one would expect, it seems Lily himself dealt, and by this I am referring here to dealing in other artist's work, not his own; in the late 1650s, for example, he sold two pictures to Ralph Bankes, a 'Greate Landskip of Bergens' and a 'Coppy of a night Peice' (see Alastair Laing, 'Sir Peter Lely and Sir Ralph Bankes', Art and Patronage in the Caroline Courts; Essays in Honour of Sir Oliver Millar, ed. D. Howarth (Cambridge, 1993), pp. 107-33).
95. For Tompson's career see A. Griffiths, 'Early mezzotint publishing in England II - Peter Lely, Tompson and Browne', Print Quarterly 7 (1990), pp. 131-45.
96. For references to the numerous printsellers operating in London during this period, see Robert Hooke's Diary: 1672-1680, ed. H. W. Robinson and W. Adams (London, 1935).
97. Huygens, op. cit. (note 48), p. 326.
98. The final totals recorded were: £2,446.8s. for drawings and prints (this does not, of course, include the proceeds of the 1694 sale held at Parry Walton's. Whatever this amounted to, and it must have been a much smaller sum, given that it was considered the poorer part of the collection, it must eventually have been paid to John Lely); £6,311.3s.6d. for pictures (a number of smaller amounts were paid in addition to the total recorded in Appendix I); £585.18s.3d. for furniture; £849.14s.2d. for plate and jewellery; £78.15s.5d. for china and £164.13s.8d. for painting utensils. BL, Add. MS 16,174, fol. 119v.
99. BL, Add. MS 32,506, fols. 190-3. Also, on 24 January 1691/92 Sonnius told Huygens that Lely's son 'was married to a young girl with possessions'. Huygens, op. cit. (note 69), 25, p. 10.
100. Vertue Notebooks I (Walpole Society 18) (1929-30), p. 69.
101. Vertue Notebooks II, op. cit. (note 17), p. 144.
102. Vertue Notebooks I, op. cit. (note 110), p. 52.
103. Huygens, op. cit. (note 48), pp. 255 and 401.
104. Vertue Notebooks I, op. cit. (note no), p. 134.
105. Evelyn, op. cit. (note 34), pp. 147-8, n. 6.
106. Vertue Notebooks II, op. cit. (note 17), p. 29.
107. See O. Millar 'Artists and craftsmen in the service of Sir Stephen Fox and his family', Burlington Magazine 137 (995), pp. 518-28.
108. Vertue Notebooks V (Walpole Society 26) (1937-8), pp. 54-5.
109. See M. Whinney and O. Millar, English Art 1625-1714 (Oxford, 1957).
110. Evelyn, op. cit. (note 34), p. 179.
111. Walpole, op. cit. (note 16), II, p. 86.
112. Vertue Notebooks II, op. cit. (note 17), pp. 144-5.
113. Vertue Notebooks I, op. cit. (note 110), p. 27.
114. His John Lavie, a French Protestant, was sold at Christie's, London on 25 July 1958, lot 129.
115. See E. K. W. Waterhouse, The Dictionary of 16th & 17th Century British Painters (Woodbridge, 1988), p. 152.
116. For further information, see Pears, op. cit. (note 103) passim, advertisements in the London Gazette for this period and a volume of later seventeenth-century sale catalogues in the British Library (BL, 1402.g.1 etc.).
117. For a full discussion of Montagu's patronage and collecting at Boughton, see T. Murdoch, op. cit. (note 35).
118. A Mr Norris was paid £6 for supplying Lely's coffin: BL, Add. MS 16,174, fol. 7v.
119. BL, Add. MS 27,898, Royal Household 1688-1697, fol. 18.
120. Huygens, op. cit. (note 48), 25, p. 316.
121. Evelyn, op. cit. (note 34), V, p. 145.
122. Vertue Notebooks V, op. cit. (note 119), p. 55.
123. See Dictionary of National Biography.
124. Pepys, op. cit. (note 83), V, pp. 161-2.
125. Vertue Notebooks IV, op. cit. (note 33), p. 35.
126. Huygens, op. cit. (note 48), 25, pp. 27 and 29.
127. Charles Beale, MS notebook for 1681, National Portrait Gallery, London.
128. BL, Add. MS 16,174, fol. 17r.
129. Huygens, op. cit. (note 48), 25, pp. 331-2.
130. Vertue Notebooks I, op. cit. (note 110), p. 117.
131. Walpole, op. cit. (note 16), II, p. 130.
132. Vertue Notebooks II, op. cit. (note 17), p. 30.
133. Vertue Notebooks III (Walpole Society 22) (1933-4), p. 86.
134. See Hooke's Diary for 15 September 1675 (p. 180) and 15 October 1677 (p. 320).
135. Huygens, op. cit. (note 48), 25, p. 71.