DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.73059#0018
Bartolozzi and his Works.
the very few ; for even a large picture buyer can hardly be said to collect in the sense
which implies the delightful pre-occupation of a perpetual search and constant acquisition.
A quaint author, in an anonymous work written more than a century ago,* says :
* " Sculptura-Historico-Technica ; or, The History and Art of Engraving." London: S. Harding, on the Pave-
ment, in St. Martin's Lane, 1747.
" Prints are as useful as entertaining. They represent absent things as if they were
present. ... I am surprised to find so few gentlemen professed admirers. Nothing
is also more proper to form a taste than prints : they give us a tincture of the fine arts ;
they assist us to arrive at the knowledge of paintings,—for if we examine them attentively
they make us discover the different manner affected by each school and master."
Print-collecting requires some preparatory study, which is in its favour as a hobby ;
for we all are the better for the civilization and cultivation of all our tastes, and for
the perfection of one or two. Natural taste is, as a rule, barbarous, a fact which may
be proved by the music of the masses. Tunes of vulgarly marked rhythm and rowdy
character run like wildfire through a whole population ; while, to go a step lower, some
ears there must be which take pleasure in the German concertina played occasionally in
our streets, an instrument of torture having unchangeable chords. Vulgar pictures—trashy
in feeling, and as painful to the eye in their jar of colour as the German concertina is to
the ear with its jar of keys—are also popular with the many. But that the love of true art,
and the power of its development, are latent, even in the untaught mind, is evidenced by
taste as it comes under cultivation naturally leading in one direction and towards one
height of excellence. No true musical student ever rejected Beethoven, and no real art
student ever refused Raphael. There must, then, be a tendency in human intelligence
which responds to the right impulse given by a touch of cultivation. It is also a truth
that few pleasures are lasting which do not involve a certain amount of labour. Now,
the print-collector has plenty to do in the way of perfecting his taste and his eye when
he has once entered the world of dilettanti.
There are people who consider it, or say they do, a crime to allow sordid motives to
influence them in the purchase of works of art ; but human nature is pretty much the
same everywhere, and it cannot be denied that to buy well—which means making the
best use of one's knowledge and judgment—is to most persons a pleasure in itself. There
is a certain satisfaction in knowing that value has been obtained for the money expended ;
and there is a further satisfaction in feeling assured that should the necessity arise for the
disposal of what has afforded so much pleasure to collect and to possess, the sum realized
will prove the investment to have been sound, that one's hobby has been ridden profitably.
Collectors who judiciously accumulate, can, by watching their opportunity—their
chances are sure to come if they are patient,—generally obtain a handsome profit, should
they have fallen in love with another fancy, or should necessity compel them to realize.
There is of course a risk in selling as in buying, but in doing either, as in other matters,
"knowledge is power." In selling prints, either duplicates turned out or an entire collec-
tion, it is unwise to put a reserve price on every lot ; for if it be not reached, and lot after
lot be bought in by the auctioneer, the dealers very soon find it out, and probably refuse
2
to
the very few ; for even a large picture buyer can hardly be said to collect in the sense
which implies the delightful pre-occupation of a perpetual search and constant acquisition.
A quaint author, in an anonymous work written more than a century ago,* says :
* " Sculptura-Historico-Technica ; or, The History and Art of Engraving." London: S. Harding, on the Pave-
ment, in St. Martin's Lane, 1747.
" Prints are as useful as entertaining. They represent absent things as if they were
present. ... I am surprised to find so few gentlemen professed admirers. Nothing
is also more proper to form a taste than prints : they give us a tincture of the fine arts ;
they assist us to arrive at the knowledge of paintings,—for if we examine them attentively
they make us discover the different manner affected by each school and master."
Print-collecting requires some preparatory study, which is in its favour as a hobby ;
for we all are the better for the civilization and cultivation of all our tastes, and for
the perfection of one or two. Natural taste is, as a rule, barbarous, a fact which may
be proved by the music of the masses. Tunes of vulgarly marked rhythm and rowdy
character run like wildfire through a whole population ; while, to go a step lower, some
ears there must be which take pleasure in the German concertina played occasionally in
our streets, an instrument of torture having unchangeable chords. Vulgar pictures—trashy
in feeling, and as painful to the eye in their jar of colour as the German concertina is to
the ear with its jar of keys—are also popular with the many. But that the love of true art,
and the power of its development, are latent, even in the untaught mind, is evidenced by
taste as it comes under cultivation naturally leading in one direction and towards one
height of excellence. No true musical student ever rejected Beethoven, and no real art
student ever refused Raphael. There must, then, be a tendency in human intelligence
which responds to the right impulse given by a touch of cultivation. It is also a truth
that few pleasures are lasting which do not involve a certain amount of labour. Now,
the print-collector has plenty to do in the way of perfecting his taste and his eye when
he has once entered the world of dilettanti.
There are people who consider it, or say they do, a crime to allow sordid motives to
influence them in the purchase of works of art ; but human nature is pretty much the
same everywhere, and it cannot be denied that to buy well—which means making the
best use of one's knowledge and judgment—is to most persons a pleasure in itself. There
is a certain satisfaction in knowing that value has been obtained for the money expended ;
and there is a further satisfaction in feeling assured that should the necessity arise for the
disposal of what has afforded so much pleasure to collect and to possess, the sum realized
will prove the investment to have been sound, that one's hobby has been ridden profitably.
Collectors who judiciously accumulate, can, by watching their opportunity—their
chances are sure to come if they are patient,—generally obtain a handsome profit, should
they have fallen in love with another fancy, or should necessity compel them to realize.
There is of course a risk in selling as in buying, but in doing either, as in other matters,
"knowledge is power." In selling prints, either duplicates turned out or an entire collec-
tion, it is unwise to put a reserve price on every lot ; for if it be not reached, and lot after
lot be bought in by the auctioneer, the dealers very soon find it out, and probably refuse
2
to