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Lot 1054 Thomas Howard, 2nd Early of Arundel (1585-1646) was a member of one of the most important aristocratic families in England and formed the first important collection of classical sculpture in this country. In 1612 he travelled extensively in Italy, making his first acquisitions of sculpture, accompanied by Thomas Coke and later Inigo Jones who acted as a guide and artistic advisor. His exposure to the classical art of Italy meant that on his return to London he began the transformation of his sprawling Tudor home on the Strand into an Italianate palace. He later appointed an agent, the Rev. William Petty, to visit Athens and Turkey to purchase sculpture on his behalf. With enormous energy Petty set about collecting over 300 statues, busts, sarcophagi, altars and inscriptions, scoring over he patron’s closest rival, the Duke of Buckingham. By 1819 they had become the focal point of Howard's sculpture gallery in Arundel House on the Strand.
Arundel’s love of the antique was not shared by his heirs. Henry, 6th Duke of Norfolk (d.1684) pulled down Arundel House and many pieces were sold off to Thomas Herbert (later eighth Earl of Pembroke) who removed them to Wilton House, or even buried under rubble. In 1691 the 7th Earl sold off more of the grounds of Arundel House and the remaining sculpture was urgently disposed of. Sir William Fermor acquired most of the presentable pieces for £300 and sent them to his house at Easton Neston – in 1755 they were given to Oxford University (now in the Ashmolean Museum). Other sculptures were given to a former family servant Boyder Cuper, while the residue were transported across the Thames and dumped on waste ground by the river, later to be covered by hundreds of tons of excavated earth from the building of the new St Paul's Cathedral.
The pieces given to Cuper adorned a pleasure garden, popularly known as Cupids Garden, which he had opened on the banks of the Thames at Lambeth. It was whilst here that many of them were seen and recorded in 1719 in volume v. of John Aubrey’s Natural History and Antiquities of Surrey (Tabs 2-9). Shortly after this publication two friends and collectors, John Freeman of Fawley court, Henley-on-Thames, and Edmund Waller of Hall Barn, Beaconsfield, persuaded the then proprietor to part with the sculptures for £75 and they were divided up between the two houses. Here they lay for more than 250 years before Denys Haynes, former Keeper of the Greek and Roman Department of the British Museum, rediscovered them.
Arundel’s love of the antique was not shared by his heirs. Henry, 6th Duke of Norfolk (d.1684) pulled down Arundel House and many pieces were sold off to Thomas Herbert (later eighth Earl of Pembroke) who removed them to Wilton House, or even buried under rubble. In 1691 the 7th Earl sold off more of the grounds of Arundel House and the remaining sculpture was urgently disposed of. Sir William Fermor acquired most of the presentable pieces for £300 and sent them to his house at Easton Neston – in 1755 they were given to Oxford University (now in the Ashmolean Museum). Other sculptures were given to a former family servant Boyder Cuper, while the residue were transported across the Thames and dumped on waste ground by the river, later to be covered by hundreds of tons of excavated earth from the building of the new St Paul's Cathedral.
The pieces given to Cuper adorned a pleasure garden, popularly known as Cupids Garden, which he had opened on the banks of the Thames at Lambeth. It was whilst here that many of them were seen and recorded in 1719 in volume v. of John Aubrey’s Natural History and Antiquities of Surrey (Tabs 2-9). Shortly after this publication two friends and collectors, John Freeman of Fawley court, Henley-on-Thames, and Edmund Waller of Hall Barn, Beaconsfield, persuaded the then proprietor to part with the sculptures for £75 and they were divided up between the two houses. Here they lay for more than 250 years before Denys Haynes, former Keeper of the Greek and Roman Department of the British Museum, rediscovered them.
A ROMAN MARBLE HEAD OF A GODDESS
CIRCA 2ND CENTURY A.D.
Closed22 May 2014
Price Realised
GBP 6,250