DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.55337#0015
INTRODUCTION
The original idea was to take with me a Danish specialist in
photography, but when in 1919 I applied to the man who had been
ready to accompany me in 1914, his charges were so exorbitant that
I broke off the negotiations, and asked the British Museum to procure
me an English collaborator. In Edinburgh I met Mr. R. B. Fleming,
who had done good work in photography for Miss Wyndham, and
we easily agreed on terms. I subsequently found that I was more
lucky than I realized ; for not only was Mr. Fleming a valuable and
resourceful travelling companion, but he overcame difficulties which
would certainly have been too much for his Danish colleague. Many
of the busts to be reproduced were placed on the top of lofty book-cases,
or stood in high wall-niches, or were to be found in dark corners, and
in order to study and photograph them it was necessary sometimes to
construct tall and shaky scaffolding with steps and boards, at others
to work with reflecting mirrors so as to neutralize flat or partial light
or deep shadows. It was only at Rossie Priory and at Lansdowne
House that we were permitted to take the busts down and reproduce
them in the most favourable light; and I beg the readers of this work
to judge Mr. Fleming’s execution by the illustrations from these two
houses and to understand that the reproductions from other places
are as good as was possible under the conditions. These difficulties
explain how, in a number of cases, we had to be content with a single
photograph, where two or three would have been desirable but were
not obtainable. The important portrait of Plato at Hoikham Hall
(no. 5) was photographed again after our departure by Lord Coke
at the suggestion of Mr. C. W. James, and the blocks of these pictures,
first reproduced in the Journal of Hellenic Studies for 1920, have been
kindly lent to me by the editors for the purposes of this work.
My tour took me to the following mansions, in all of which
I had a most hospitable reception : Rossie Priory in Scotland, Ince
Blundell Hall in Lancashire, Margam Park in Glamorganshire,
Wilton House in Wiltshire, Houghton Hall and Hoikham Hall in
Norfolk, Lansdowne House in London, and Sion House at Chiswick.
I also reproduced some sculptures in Sir John Soane’s Museum.
Altogether 112 portraits have been photographed, besides some
The original idea was to take with me a Danish specialist in
photography, but when in 1919 I applied to the man who had been
ready to accompany me in 1914, his charges were so exorbitant that
I broke off the negotiations, and asked the British Museum to procure
me an English collaborator. In Edinburgh I met Mr. R. B. Fleming,
who had done good work in photography for Miss Wyndham, and
we easily agreed on terms. I subsequently found that I was more
lucky than I realized ; for not only was Mr. Fleming a valuable and
resourceful travelling companion, but he overcame difficulties which
would certainly have been too much for his Danish colleague. Many
of the busts to be reproduced were placed on the top of lofty book-cases,
or stood in high wall-niches, or were to be found in dark corners, and
in order to study and photograph them it was necessary sometimes to
construct tall and shaky scaffolding with steps and boards, at others
to work with reflecting mirrors so as to neutralize flat or partial light
or deep shadows. It was only at Rossie Priory and at Lansdowne
House that we were permitted to take the busts down and reproduce
them in the most favourable light; and I beg the readers of this work
to judge Mr. Fleming’s execution by the illustrations from these two
houses and to understand that the reproductions from other places
are as good as was possible under the conditions. These difficulties
explain how, in a number of cases, we had to be content with a single
photograph, where two or three would have been desirable but were
not obtainable. The important portrait of Plato at Hoikham Hall
(no. 5) was photographed again after our departure by Lord Coke
at the suggestion of Mr. C. W. James, and the blocks of these pictures,
first reproduced in the Journal of Hellenic Studies for 1920, have been
kindly lent to me by the editors for the purposes of this work.
My tour took me to the following mansions, in all of which
I had a most hospitable reception : Rossie Priory in Scotland, Ince
Blundell Hall in Lancashire, Margam Park in Glamorganshire,
Wilton House in Wiltshire, Houghton Hall and Hoikham Hall in
Norfolk, Lansdowne House in London, and Sion House at Chiswick.
I also reproduced some sculptures in Sir John Soane’s Museum.
Altogether 112 portraits have been photographed, besides some