Walters, Henry Beauchamp: Catalogue of the bronzes, Greek, Roman, and Etruscan in the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities, British Museum (London, 1899)

XIV

CATALOGUE OF BRONZES.

Museum collection in all branches of Greek and Roman antiquities, but chiefly
in sculpture, owing to the acquisition of the Elgin and Phigaleian marbles and
the great collection of Mr. Charles Towneley.* The latter was purchased in
1805 by Act of Parliament for ^20,000. Mr. Towneley’s collection also included
many fine and interesting bronzes. Of these the largest are the Heracles from
Byblos, No. 827, and the Apollo, No. 987, the latter having been purchased at
the Choiseul sale by Mr. Towneley ; the Heracles had been sent to England in
1779 by Dr. Swinney, Chaplain to the Factory at Constantinople. Among
other Towneley bronzes may be mentioned the Eileithyia and the Satyr with
ram (Pl. II.); the Etruscan cista with the sacrifice of Polyxena (743); and severai
fine Etruscan mirrors, notably Nos. 244, 541, 544, and 723. These were purchased
in 1814 by a second Act.

For the next ten years the collection of bronzes received few, if auy,
additions, but in 1824 it was greatly enriched, both in quality and quantity, by
the bequest of Mr. Richard Payne Knight,f who left all his antiquities to the
Museum, including marble busts, gems, coins, and vases, but above all, bronzes.
He was regarded as the greatest connoisseur of his time, and a curious charac-
teristic was that he denied the possibility of beauty and magnitude existing
together, so that he limited his acquisitive energies almost entirely to the smaller
productions of art. The chief attraction among his bronzes was formed by the
Paramythia group, found near Dodona in Epirus in 1792 and 1796, nearly the
whole of which came into his hands. Those now in the Museum (Nos. 272-281
and 1445) were collected by Payne Knight from various sources. Nineteen in
all were found at Paramythia, and some were purchased at Janina by a Greek
merchant, who rescued them from being melted down by a coppersmith. From
him they came partly into the possession of the Czernicheff family, partly into
the hands of M. de Wierislowsky ; the latter share was purchased by Payne
Knight. Of the others, two were given to Payne Knight by the Earl of
Aberdeen, and one was purchased by him from a Greek dragoman ; two more
came into the possession of Mr. Hawkins. The Czernicheff bronzes consisted
of a Zeus, a Satyr, an Eros, a triple Hecate, and a Hera. Those purchased from
M. de Wierislowsky were Nos. 272-274 and 276-280 ; the Zeus, No. 275, he
acquired from the Greek dragoman, and Nos. 281^, from the Earl of Aberdeen.
Into Mr. Hawkins’ possession came a Hermes (Spec. Ant. Sculpt. ii. 21) and the
Aphrodite and Anchises mirror-case, of which No. 287 is a cast. The nineteenth
bronze was a Heracles, which found its way to Russia.J

Among the other Payne Knight bronzes the two most important are the
Apollo after Canachos (Pl. I.) and the Hermes (Pl. XXIV.) ; the latter was found
at Pierre-en-Luiset, near Lyons, on February 19th, 1732. “ Two labourers named

* For a detailed life of Mr. Towneley and account of his collection, see Ellis, Towneley Gallery,
2 vols., 1846 ; also Michaelis, Ancient Marlles in Gt. Britain, p. 127, and Edwards, Lives of the Foundcrs
of the Brit. Mus. p. 369 ff.

f Michaelis, Ancient Marbles in Gt. Britain, p. 119 ff. ; Edwards, Lives of the Founders, p. 401 ff.

% Sfce. Ant. Sculpt. ii. p. l.w. ; Edwards, Livcs oj the Founders, p. 407 ; sce Pls. v-vii.