DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.73058#0058
Bartoloz^i and his Works.
as we are firmly persuaded that you will, upon every occasion, exert yourself in support
of the honour, interest, and dignity, of the said establishment ; and that you will faithfully
and assiduously discharge the duties of the several offices to which you shall be nominated.
In consequence of this our gracious resolution, it is our pleasure that your name be
forthwith inserted in the roll of the Academicians, and that you do subscribe the obligation
in the form and manner prescribed.
Given at our Royal Palace of Saint James's, the
in the year of our reign.
In 1868, the centenary of the foundation of the Royal Academy, honorary foreign
members were first admitted. Bartolozzi's plates were still used, and the following is the
wording of the diploma :—
Her Most Gracious Majesty Queen Victoria, Patron of the Royal Academy of Arts,
London, founded by Her Royal Grandfather, King George 3rd, A.D. 1768, having
been pleased to approve and confirm the Institution of a Class of Members to be called
Honorary Foreign Members of the said Royal Academy of Arts, to consist of distinguished
Continental Artists, Painters, Sculptors, Architects, and Engravers, according to resolu-
tions submitted to Her Majesty by a general assembly of Academicians, held in the year
1868, being the centenary of the foundation of the Royal Academy : we, the President and
Members of the Royal Academy of Arts, in consideration of your great skill as a
have had the honour to elect you
an honorary Foreign Member, as by rules set forth and enacted.
The large size of this diploma rendering it an awkward object to transmit abroad,
Mr. George Doo had the honour of being requested to re-engrave it in facsimile on a single
plate, reduced to half size—a task, considering the merit of Bartolozzi's original work,
by no means easy. The writer is indebted to Mr. Doo for an unlettered proof, and it is
sufficient to say the original diploma is most exquisitely and truthfully reproduced.
The diploma granted to Bartolozzi himself may now be in existence : the last heard
of it was at the sale of Mr. Anthony Molteno, of Pall Mall, the well-known print publisher,
where, on the 26th April, 1824, it was put up to auction, and figures in the catalogue as
" Lot 485:Mr. Bartolozzi's own diploma when elected R.A.—a print of singular curiosity?
But what it fetched, who was the purchaser, or what became of it, is not known.
In the British Museum collection there is but one diploma—that of Michael Moser,
R.A., dated 1768.
Mr. Graves, who intends bequeathing it to the Royal Academy, purchased Sir Joshua
Reynolds' diploma, as Academician, at a sale at Christie, Manson & Woods', April 28th,
1873, when it was knocked down to him for the insignificant sum of £6.* Previously to
* Mr. Sandby, of the War Office, one day, not so very long ago, called upon Mr. Graves in Pall Mall, and told him
that he was very anxious indeed to possess the diploma of his illustrious ancestor, Paul Sandby, surmising Mr. Graves to
be the man most likely to know something of it, or best able to trace and discover it. Mr. Graves went to a portfolio,
took out a diploma, and laid it before Mr. Sandby, saying quietly, " I suppose this is the sort of thing you require?"
It was, in fact, the diploma itself, and the find is a curious example of fortunate chances. It is hardly necessary to say
that the diploma at once changed hands, the very moderate sum of ten guineas being asked and unhesitatingly paid.
40 its
as we are firmly persuaded that you will, upon every occasion, exert yourself in support
of the honour, interest, and dignity, of the said establishment ; and that you will faithfully
and assiduously discharge the duties of the several offices to which you shall be nominated.
In consequence of this our gracious resolution, it is our pleasure that your name be
forthwith inserted in the roll of the Academicians, and that you do subscribe the obligation
in the form and manner prescribed.
Given at our Royal Palace of Saint James's, the
in the year of our reign.
In 1868, the centenary of the foundation of the Royal Academy, honorary foreign
members were first admitted. Bartolozzi's plates were still used, and the following is the
wording of the diploma :—
Her Most Gracious Majesty Queen Victoria, Patron of the Royal Academy of Arts,
London, founded by Her Royal Grandfather, King George 3rd, A.D. 1768, having
been pleased to approve and confirm the Institution of a Class of Members to be called
Honorary Foreign Members of the said Royal Academy of Arts, to consist of distinguished
Continental Artists, Painters, Sculptors, Architects, and Engravers, according to resolu-
tions submitted to Her Majesty by a general assembly of Academicians, held in the year
1868, being the centenary of the foundation of the Royal Academy : we, the President and
Members of the Royal Academy of Arts, in consideration of your great skill as a
have had the honour to elect you
an honorary Foreign Member, as by rules set forth and enacted.
The large size of this diploma rendering it an awkward object to transmit abroad,
Mr. George Doo had the honour of being requested to re-engrave it in facsimile on a single
plate, reduced to half size—a task, considering the merit of Bartolozzi's original work,
by no means easy. The writer is indebted to Mr. Doo for an unlettered proof, and it is
sufficient to say the original diploma is most exquisitely and truthfully reproduced.
The diploma granted to Bartolozzi himself may now be in existence : the last heard
of it was at the sale of Mr. Anthony Molteno, of Pall Mall, the well-known print publisher,
where, on the 26th April, 1824, it was put up to auction, and figures in the catalogue as
" Lot 485:Mr. Bartolozzi's own diploma when elected R.A.—a print of singular curiosity?
But what it fetched, who was the purchaser, or what became of it, is not known.
In the British Museum collection there is but one diploma—that of Michael Moser,
R.A., dated 1768.
Mr. Graves, who intends bequeathing it to the Royal Academy, purchased Sir Joshua
Reynolds' diploma, as Academician, at a sale at Christie, Manson & Woods', April 28th,
1873, when it was knocked down to him for the insignificant sum of £6.* Previously to
* Mr. Sandby, of the War Office, one day, not so very long ago, called upon Mr. Graves in Pall Mall, and told him
that he was very anxious indeed to possess the diploma of his illustrious ancestor, Paul Sandby, surmising Mr. Graves to
be the man most likely to know something of it, or best able to trace and discover it. Mr. Graves went to a portfolio,
took out a diploma, and laid it before Mr. Sandby, saying quietly, " I suppose this is the sort of thing you require?"
It was, in fact, the diploma itself, and the find is a curious example of fortunate chances. It is hardly necessary to say
that the diploma at once changed hands, the very moderate sum of ten guineas being asked and unhesitatingly paid.
40 its