The Marlborough Gems: Formerly at Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire

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John Boardman (Lincoln Professor Emeritus of Archaeology and Art, Oxford University) Diana Scarisbrick (Associate Researcher, Associate Researcher, Beazley Archive, Oxford University)

The Marlborough Gems

Formerly at Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire

John Boardman (Lincoln Professor Emeritus of Archaeology and Art, Oxford University), Diana Scarisbrick (Associate Researcher, Associate Researcher, Beazley Archive, Oxford University), Claudia Wagner (Director of the Gem Program, Director of the Gem Program, Beazley Archive, Oxford University) , Erika Zwierlein-Diehl (Emeritus Professor, Emeritus Professor, Bonn University)

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English

Oxford University Press
31 July 2009

History of Art & Design Styles; History of art: ancient & classical art; Precious metal & precious stones: artworks & design; Exhibition catalogues & specific collections; British & Irish history; Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900

The collection of about 800 engraved gems of the Fourth Duke of Marlborough (1739-1817) at Blenheim Palace was the largest and most important of the 18th-century English collections. It comprised a Renaissance collection of the Gonzaga Dukes of Mantua, acquired by Lord Arundel in the mid-17th century; the mid-18th-century collection of Lord Bessborough; and the Duke's own acquisitions in Italy and elsewhere. The collection was finally dispersed at sale in 1899. The present whereabouts of little over one quarter is now known, while the appearance of less than one third is known from autopsy or mainly 18th-century drawings. However, the Beazley Archive in Oxford possesses impressions and electrotype copies of virtually every Marlborough gem as well as the cataloguer's notebooks.

This publication presents in full colour all the illustrative material available, from the Archive, from drawings and from autopsy, study, and photography, of the surviving identified pieces. Each is described and discussed, and, in the accompaying text, the evidence for the Mantua collecting and the sources for the later collections are explored, with emphasis on the way the collection illustrates the history of gem-collecting in England, and the reception there of classical iconography which came to be much copied in the 18th century and later in other media.

By: John Boardman (Lincoln Professor Emeritus of Archaeology and Art Oxford University), Diana Scarisbrick (Associate Researcher, Associate Researcher, Beazley Archive, Oxford University), Claudia Wagner (Director of the Gem Program, Director of the Gem Program, Beazley Archive, Oxford University), Erika Zwierlein-Diehl (Emeritus Professor, Emeritus Professor, Bonn University)
Imprint: Oxford University Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 283mm, Width: 226mm, Spine: 25mm
Weight: 1.508kg
ISBN: 9780199237517
ISBN 10: 0199237514
Pages: 384
Publication Date: 31 July 2009
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Introduction I: The Arundel Collection and the Gonzaga Dukes of Mantua II: The Recording and Sale of the Marlborough Collection III: The Arundel Collection and Catalogue IV: The Bessborough Collection and Catalogue V: The Duke's Gems and Catalogue VI: Diana Scarisbrick: The Gem Settings Appendix to Catalogues Plates

Sir John Boardman is Lincoln Professor Emeritus of Archaeology and Art, Oxford University.

Reviews for The Marlborough Gems: Formerly at Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire

A useful account of elaborate Renaissance and later mounts, which have all too often been removed and discarded, but are useful for identification and dating as well as the history of taste. Kenneth Lapatin, Times Literary Supplement A splendid and wonderfully rich volume Lucia Pirzio Biroli Stfanelli, Apollo Magazine The major importance of this book lies in the full catalogue of the collection Art Newspaper