Maurice Johnson - Roger Gale - 1741-04-03

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Maurice Johnson, Spalding

Maurice Johnson - Roger Gale - 1741-04-03
FINA IDUnique ID of the page  14804
InstitutionName of Institution.
InventoryInventory number.
AuthorAuthor of the document. Maurice Johnson
RecipientRecipient of the correspondence. Roger Gale
Correspondence dateDate when the correspondence was written: day - month - year . April 3, 1741
PlacePlace of publication of the book, composition of the document or institution. Spalding 52° 47' 15.50" N, 0° 9' 9.54" W
Associated personsNames of Persons who are mentioned in the annotation. Beaupré Bell, Enea Vico, John Collins, Charles Little, Vyner Snell, Elisha Kirkall
LiteratureReference to literature. Nichols 1781-1790, pp. 344-61, Lukis 1882-1887, vol. 2, pp. 280-22, Burnett 2020b, pp. 1661, 393, 635, 1162 n. 73, 13203
KeywordNumismatic Keywords  Otho , Nero , Bronze , Forgeries , Paduan , Greek , Roman , Travel , Engraved Plates
LanguageLanguage of the correspondence English
External LinkLink to external information, e.g. Wikpedia 
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Grand documentOriginal passage from the "Grand document".

'Mr Collins ... shewed me a copper Otho, formed, as I verily believe, out of a middle brass of NERO, with SECVRITAS on the reverse, valued at forty pounds; and one Mr Houghton, of St Edmunds, in these parts of Holland, since then shewed me a Paduan in great brass, Rev. an Adlocutio Militum, a good deal worn, but pretended to be found in an old ruinous grange called Monksdoles ... and valued by him at much money. You see, Sir, how curiosity in the medallick way is strangely alive amongst people who see and know as little of this sort of money as any in England.
The former of these belongs to poor Mr Charles Little of Boston, an illiterate coffee-house-keeper, who has begged and bought up as strange a farrago of a collection as ever was beheld. The latter, I am persuaded, was pawned by some traveller, and is gone to see if Mr Beaupré Bell, or Mr Snell, rector of Doddington in the Isle of Ely will give a good price for it.
I believe cousin Bell knows better; he has lately purchased a ollection of about 500 Greek and Roman coins, brought from abroad, by the late Mr Hanson, lecturer of Wisbech, a great traveller, and possessed also of many natural curiosities, which he picked up in the East Indies, and most parts of Europe and Asia, besides a large collection of portraits on copper plates.
Mr Bell has been so ill as to be prevented going to Cambridge, where he was before Christmas, and proposed to have returned ere this, to have finished the printing of his Tabulae Augustae; and I find, there is some doubt whether he will live to see it out, he is so very much declined in health, and complains of the mistakes and negligence of Kirkhall the engraver, who, being at London, and not pursuing his draughts and dirctions, puts him to great difficulties to rectify his errors at so great a distance, in so nice works as the outlines of portraits from coins, and the legends round them, a work only fitt for an Aenea Vico, or such an engraver. I could have wished, as Mr Bell draws accurately himself, that he would rather have etched them with his own hand, than trusted the doing them to any one not a scholar and well acquainted with the features of of the princes to be represented.'

(Nichols 1781-1790, pp. 344-6; Lukis 1882-1887, vol. 2, pp. 280-2; Burnett 2020b, p. 1661)

References

  1. ^  Nichols, John (ed.), Reliquiae Galeanae, in Bibliotheca Topographica Britannica II.1 (London, 1781), II.2 (London, 1781), III (London, 1790).
  2. ^  Lukis, W.C. (ed.)(1882-87) The Family Memoirs of the Rev. William Stukeley and the Correspondence of William Stukeley, Roger & Samuel Gale, Etc., 3 Vols, Publications of the Surtees Society Vols. 73, 76, 80, London.
  3. ^  Burnett, Andrew M. (2020), The Hidden Treasures of this Happy Land. A History of Numismatics in Britain from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment, BNS Special Publ. No 14 = RNS Special Publ. No 58, London, Spink & Son.