Beschreibung:

PORTLAND, Margaret Harley Cavendish Bentick, Dower Duchess of William, Second Duke of Portland (1715-1785) -- John LIGHTFOOT (1735-1788). Catalogue of the Portland Museum, lately the Property of the Duchess Dowager of Portland, deceased; which will be sold by Auction . London: Skinner & Co., 24th April, 1786. - [ Bound with: ] A Marked Catalogue containing the Lots, what each respectively sold for, and the Names of the Purchasers ... which constituted the Portland Museum. London: Printed for Kearsley, Walker, et al., 1786. 4 o (253 x 199 mm). Engraved frontispiece by Grignion after Burney ("executed under the direction of J. Bell, April 8, 1786"), showing the interior of the Portland Museum, with the Portland Vase and other objects. (Lacking the 6 page supplement.) Contemporary marbled boards, rebacked and corners renewed with calf. Provenance : John Towneley (bookplate); Edward von Koenneritz (calling card pasted on title verso). Number 197 of approximately 2000 copies. Although the most of the 4156 lots in the collection consisted primarily of natural history specimens, its most prominent lots were: lot 4155, the Barberini (or "Portland") Vase which sold to Tomlinson on behalf of the Duke of Marlborough. Other items in the sale included: the celebrated "Bedford Missal" (really a Book of Hours), today one of the treasures of the British Library (lot 2,951, £213.3.0 to Payne), Queen Elizabeth's Prayer Book (lot 2950, £106) and a "Missal" with illuminations attributed to Giulio Clovio bought by Horace Walpole through Humphreys for £169.1.0, lot 2,952 (it was, in fact a Psalter, illuminated in Venice, c. 1537). The supplement of 103 separately numbered lots of cameos, rings and objects de vertu, was presumably issued in the last moment and is therefore missing in most copies.