William Hamilton - William Hunter - 1775-01-02

William Hamilton, Naples

William Hamilton - William Hunter - 1775-01-02

FINA IDUnique ID of the page ^ᵖ	16520
InstitutionName of Institution.	Glasgow, Glasgow University
InventoryInventory number.
AuthorAuthor of the document.	William Hamilton
RecipientRecipient of the correspondence.	William Hunter
Correspondence dateDate when the correspondence was written: day - month - year .	January 2, 1775
PlacePlace of publication of the book, composition of the document or institution.	Naples ^{40° 50' 9.18" N, 14° 14' 55.56" E}
Associated personsNames of Persons who are mentioned in the annotation.	Isaac Jamineau, James Douglas
LiteratureReference to literature.	MacDonald 1899, pp. xix-xx1, Brock 2008, vol. 2, pp. 186-7, letter 3222, Burnett 2020b, p. 1056 n. 4293
KeywordNumismatic Keywords ^ᵖ	State Of Preservation, Gold , Aes Grave , Collection Price , Collection Value , Catalogue
LanguageLanguage of the correspondence	English
External LinkLink to external information, e.g. Wikpedia ^ᵖ	https://archive.org/details/cu31924092536634/page/n29/mode/2up

Export: CSV

RDF

Map

Loading map...

You can move or zoom the map to explore other correspondence!

Grand documentOriginal passage from the "Grand document".

'Soon after I had the pleasure of receiving your Letter of the 14th of Novr., I went to examine the collection of medals with a person who has much greater knowledge in medals than Mr. Jamineau; for it is long, and for good reasons that I have had no manner of connection with Mr. Jamineau, except upon His Majesty’s service, and they were judged to be in general true and well preserved, some few dubious, but none, or not above one or two, that can be declared false. The gold collection is admirably preserved, the medallions are very fine and some exceedingly rare and the large bronze for the most part bellissimo and conservatissimo. In short if I cow’d get them, even for 100l. more than you mention, that is 600l., I shou’d not hesitate, as I am sure that they are particularly good and such as cannot easily be procured for money. They are not in a dealer’s hands, but one of the nobility whose Father was a great collector and a very judicious one. I have told him the estimation such as it cou’d be made from the imperfect idea that cou’d be formed from the catalogue, but as his pretentions are far beyond that sum, I thought it not the time to offer more, and that the best way is to appear cool about them; if the owner has bad luck at play, he will perhaps come to me, and at all events I will keep an eye upon him, as I realy shou’d be happy to do you a pleasure and secure such valuable monuments of antiquity to our country. I never collected medals regularly and those that were lumped with my collection of antiquities in the Museum were such as I bought accidently with other monuments of antiquity. The collection I bought for the late Ld. Morton was a curious one, but I prefer this little collection.' (MacDonald 1899, pp. xix-xx; Brock 2008, vol. 2, pp. 186-7, letter 322; Burnett 2020b, p. 1056 n. 429)

References

^ MacDonald, G. (1899) 'The Hunter Coin Cabinet', in id., A Catalogue of the Greek Coins in the Hunterian Collection, University of Glasgow, Volume 1, Glasgow, pp. ix-lx.
^ Brock, H. (2008) The Correspondence of Dr William Hunter, 1740-1783, 2 vols., London, Routledge.
^ 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.