Magpies, Squirrels and Thieves (52 page)

14
. In 1904, twelve years after Leyland's death, the room was bought intact by the American collector Charles Land Freer, who later founded the Freer Gallery of Art in Washington, and it was taken apart, shipped across the Atlantic and reinstalled at Freer's house in Detroit, where it was used to display his own collection of ceramics.

15
. Quoted in Meryle Secrest,
Duveen: A Life in Art
(New York: Knopf, 2005), p. 29.

16
. James Henry Duveen,
The Rise of the House of Duveen
(London and New York: Longmans, Green, 1957), p. 84.

1
.   There is still much discussion among art historians about the exact number of works that can be accurately ascribed, either in whole or in part, to Leonardo da Vinci, but there are around fifteen paintings on panels, murals and drawings on paper which form the core of the accepted body of his work. The two most famous examples are, of course, the
Mona Lisa
, displayed in the Louvre, and
The Last Supper,
in the Convent of Santa Maria della Grazia, Milan.

2
.   We know few details about exactly where or from whom Marks acquired the bust.

3
.   The new firm of Marks, Durlacher Brothers gave up the Oxford Street shop in 1885 and moved to 23A Bond Street. By 1887, they had moved again, to 142 New Bond Street, and the Marks name had been dropped, although he was still a partner in the business.

4
.   ‘The Newly-Discovered Leonardo',
Burlington Magazine
, 15, number 74 (1909), pp. 108–13. There was also a follow-up article
in the same magazine: ‘The wax bust attributed to Leonardo',
Burlington Magazine
, 16, number 81 (1909), p. 123.

5
.   
New York Times
, 5 December 1909.

6
.   There are 351 letters from Marks to Bode, just covering the period from 1890 to 1910, all of which are in the Zentralarchiv der Staatlichen Museen in Berlin. The first publication was the two-volume catalogue for the Pierpont Morgan bronzes, already mentioned in Chapter 11; the second was a three-volume book on bronzes in general which Bode published between 1907 and 1912.

7
.   Quoted in ‘Did da Vinci or R. C. Lucas create
Flora
',
The Times
, 5 December 1909.

8
.   Ibid.

9
.   
New York Times
, 5 December 1909.

10
. See Francis H. Hinsley,
British Foreign Policy under Sir Edward Grey
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1977), p. 556.

11
. Ibid.

12
. Ibid.

13
. See Kenneth Clark,
Leonardo da Vinci: An Account of his Development as an Artist
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1939). The Kaiser-Friedrich Museum in Berlin reopened in 2007 as the Bode Museum, with
Flora
prominently displayed in the lecture hall (room 220). Museum guides still refer to the origins of the work as a mystery, and the label hedges its bets, describing the sculpture as ‘both attributed to Leonardo da Vinci or one of his apprentices and viewed as a forgery of the 19th century'.

14
. Art Referees Report, 6 April 1864, Robinson Papers, NAL.

15
.
Daily Telegraph
, 2 January 1885; quoted in Burton,
Vision and Accident,
p. 132.

16
. Speech at the Birmingham School of Art, 1888, Robinson Papers, NAL.

17
. Museum minutes, 29 March 1887, Robinson archives.

18
. Wallis Budge, Keeper of Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities at the British Museum from 1892 to1924, in
By Nile and Tigris: a Narrative of Journeys in Egypt and Mesopotamia,
2 vols (London: John Murray, 1920), p. 73.

19
. A. W. Franks, letter to the British Museum, 7 October 1879.

20
. Right Revd G. F. Browne,
The Recollections of a Bishop
(London, 1915), p. 209; quoted in Caygill and Cherry (eds),
A. W. Franks
, p. 78.

21
. A. W. Franks,
Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries
, IV (1859), pp. 246–50.

22
. E. Renard, ‘Die Kunsthistorische Ausstellung, Dusseldorf, 1902', in
Rheinlande: Monatschrift für deutsche Kunst
(1902), pp. 41–2.

23
. Christie's London, ‘19th Century “Renaissance” Works of Art: A Question of Supply and Demand',
The Collection of the Late Baroness Batscheva de Rothschild
(14 December 2000), pp. 102–106.

24
. Giovanni Morelli,
Italian Painters: Critical Studies of their Works
(London: John Murray, 1892–3).

25
. The Reliquary came to the British Museum as part of the Waddesdon Bequest, left to the museum in 1898 by Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild. It was only in 1959, when the fake reliquary was brought to London and compared with the original, that the truth was finally established.

26
.
Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of London
, 42 (1891), p. 254.

27
.
Times Literary Supplement
, 12 June 1919.

28
. Official statement concerning the Salting Bequest; see Williamson,
Murray Marks and His Friends
, p. 198.

29
. Murray Marks, letter to Cecil Harcourt-Smith, 12 June 1916, Murray Marks archives, Victoria and Albert Museum. Marks assured the museum that his insurance would cover any losses.

1
.   Charles Dickens,
Little Dorrit
, edited by Stephen Wall and Helen Small (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 2003), pp. 236–7.

2
.   Jane MacLaren Walsh, ‘Legend of the Crystal Skulls',
Archaeology,
61.3 (June 2008).

3
.   Thomas Hardy,
A Pair of Blue Eyes
, edited by Tom Dolin and Alan Manford (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), p. 186.

4
.   For the biographical information on Stephen Wootton Bushell, I am indebted to the work of Professor Nick Pearce, in particular his lecture ‘Collecting, Connoisseurship and Commerce: An Examination of the Life and Career of Stephen Wootton Bushell (1844–1908)',
Transactions of the Oriental Ceramic Society
, vol. 70 (2005–2006), pp. 17–25. For details of Bushell's appointment, see p. 18. Bushell's archives of correspondence are held at the Victoria and Albert Museum where they were consulted, unless otherwise stated.

5
.   Details of Bushell's discoveries, his study of cultural meanings and his evaluation of technique and craftsmanship are taken from his masterly two-volume work
Chinese Art
, first published in 1904 and 1906 as a handbook to the Chinese collections at the Victoria and Albert. Despite being written in Bushell's old age, it retains the excitement of his early explorations and demonstrates the breadth and thoroughness of his understanding: S. W. Bushell,
Chinese Art,
2 vols (London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 1904 & 1906), p. 10; pp. 240–1.

6
.   Mary Crawford Fraser,
A Diplomat's Wife in Many Lands
(New York: Dodd, Mead, 1910). See also Pearce, ‘Collecting, Connoisseurship and Commerce', pp. 18–19.

7
.   Ibid., p. 19.

8
.   From an account by William Henry Seward, who went on to become US Secretary of State under Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson.
William H. Seward's Travels Around the World
(New York, 1873), p. 135.

9
.   Bushell,
Chinese Art,
Introduction, p. 1.

10
. Ibid., p. 22.

11
. Shirley Gordon, ‘Demands for the Education of Girls, 1790– 1865' (MA, University of London, 1950), pp. 188–9.

12
. H. E. Davies,
The Life and Works of John Charles Robinson
(Ph.D., University of Oxford, 1992), p. 46.

13
. S. W. Bushell, letter to Philip Cunliffe-Owen, 20 August 1880, Bushell archives.

1
.   For an account of Townsend's career, see G. Townsend,
Memoir of the Rev. Henry Townsend
(Exeter: James Townsend, 1887). Details of the early history of Exeter Museum are from G. T. Donisthorpe,
An Account of the Origin and Progress of the Devon and Exeter Albert Memorial Museum
(Exeter: Exeter and Plymouth Gazette, 1868), p. 24.

2
.   Quoted in George Robertson,
Traveller's Tales: narratives of home and displacement
(London: Routledge, 1994), p. 168.

3
.   See Kate Hill,
Culture and Class in English Public Museums 1850– 1914
(Aldershot: Ashgate, 2005), p. 75.

4
.   Many acquisitions were noted with pride in local papers. See L. Jessop and N. T. Sinclair,
Sunderland Museum: The People's Palace in the Park
(Sunderland: Tyne and Wear Museums, 1996), p. 40;
The Exeter Flying Post
, 6 April 1870. Details of other objects are taken from unpublished accession notes in local museums.

5
.   
A Guide to the Exhibition Galleries of the British Museum
(London, 1899), pp. 98–101.

6
.   
Illustrated London News
, 8 May 1886.

7
.   
The Orientalist
(1869), quoted in J. Jones, ‘Fugitive Pieces',
Guardian
, 25 September 2003.

8
.   
Handbook for Travellers: Baedeker
(Leipzig: Baedeker 1885), pp. 278–80.

9
.   Bushell,
Chinese Art
, vol. 2, p. 34.

10
. Sir Rutherford Alcock,
The Capital of the Tycoon: A Narrative of Three Years' Residence in Japan
(London: Longman Green, 1863), vol. I, p. xix. Alcock (1809–95) was, like Bushell, a physician by training. He had previously worked in China, having been appointed Consul at Foochow in 1844. During his ministry in Japan, he was reputedly the first foreigner to climb Mount Fuji in 1860. From 1865 to 1871, he returned to China, where he was British Minister in Peking, working of course with Bushell.

11
. Leigh Hunt, ‘The Subject of Breakfast Continued.–Tea-drinking',
London Journal
(9 July 1834), p. 113.

12
.
Harper's New Monthly Magazine
, 51 (October 1875), p. 658.

13
.
Catalogue of Chinese Objects
(London, 1872), p. 57. See also the discussion of Eastern art in ‘The Empire of Things: Engagement with the Orient',
A Grand Design: The Art of the Victoria and Albert Museum
(London: V&A Publications, 1997).

14
. A. W. Franks, letter to General Alexander Cunningham, 21 February 1881; quoted in Caygill and Cherry (eds),
A. W. Franks
, p. 259.

15
. A. W. Franks, letter to Colonel Sir C. Euan Smith, 26 May 1891.

16
. S. W. Bushell, letter to Philip Cunliffe-Owen, 9 February 1882, Bushell archives.

17
. S. W. Bushell, letters to Philip Cunliffe-Owen, 23 February 1882, 13 November 1882, Bushell archives.

18
. S. W. Bushell,
Chinese Art
, vol. 1, Preface.

19
. Fraser,
A Diplomat's Wife in Many Lands
, p. 111.

1
.   S. W. Bushell,
Chinese Art
, vol. 1, p. 94. There were all kinds of early-nineteenth-century explanations for ‘magic' mirrors. Some investigators claimed a copy of the mirror's back design
was drawn on the face and then concealed by polishing; others that the phenomenon was caused by variations in the mirror's curvature. More recent research suggests that there may have been several methods of producing the mirrors, and that variations in the bronze caused by punching, stamping and polishing may all have produced an effect.

2
.   Bushell, C
hinese Art
, vol. 1, p. 115.

3
.   Ibid.

4
.   Bushell,
Chinese Art
, vol. 2, p. 17.

5
.   Lacquering is an ancient technique for laying down extremely thin layers of a natural varnish made from the sap of the lacquer tree.

6
.   Bushell,
Chinese Art
, vol. 1, pp. 39, 47, 49.

7
.   Bushell,
Chinese Art
, vol. 1, pp. 50–51.

8
.   Figures given by Chen Mingjie, Director of the Imperial Summer Palace, Bejing, in the state-run
China Daily
newspaper, 19 January 2010.

9
.   By 1874, Salting's collection had completely outgrown the space in his London home and he lent large numbers of pieces to South Kensington. When he died in 1909, he left a huge bequest to the museum which was displayed in separate Salting galleries.

10
. Obituary,
New York Times
(23 November 1894), p. 9.

11
. Born in Worcester, James Callowhill studied at the Worcester School of Art, before working at the Worcester Royal Porcelain Works from 1853. In New York, during the 1880s, he worked for the Faience Manufacturing Company at Greenport, Brooklyn.

12
. Obituary,
New York Times
(23 November 1894), p. 9.

13
. S. W. Bushell, letter to H. R. Bishop, 23 April 1889. On his death, Bishop left his collection to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and the letters with Bushell are held there as part of the Jade Correspondence.

14
. H. R. Bishop, letter to S. W. Bushell, 27 February 1891.

15
. Preface,
The Bishop Collection: Investigations and Studies in Jade
(New York: privately printed, 1906).

16
. S. W. Bushell, letter to H. R. Bishop, 24 July 1892.

17
. W. G. Gulland, an art historian, observed in 1898 that the Chinese interest in porcelain stemmed largely from ‘the object of making large profits' from the fashionable market. See Nick Pearce,
Photographs of Peking, China 1861–1908
(New York: Edwin Mellen, 2005), p. 61.