ABOUT THE CATALOGUE

The origin of the Garrick Club Collection was the acquisition in 1835 of the paintings and drawings owned by Charles Mathews. Gathered over the previous 30 years, they formed a visual history of the Georgian Theatre, and the Club, only recently founded, was seen as the obvious home for them. In 1833 Mathews had exhibited his pictures at the Queen's Bazaar, Oxford Street, hoping to find a buyer for the collection as a single lot, and to accompany this exhibition a catalogue of the 388 paintings and drawings was compiled by his son Charles James Mathews, with his father's assistance. This initially became the unofficial catalogue of the Garrick Club collection until Robert Walters produced a new catalogue, which was published in 1909.

The Club had been left three or four pictures annually over the intervening 75 years, and Walters' catalogue contained 592 entries. His catalogue also included a number of engravings and photographs. The growth of the collection is a clear indication that the Club was seen as the logical resting place for theatrical pictures, and it is fortunate that the Club had been able to move to the larger current Club House, with its more ample wall space.

In his 1909 catalogue Robert Walters followed the format of the Mathews catalogue by including illustrative comments on many of the sitters. There is no obvious order to the numbering of the Mathews catalogue, perhaps following the order in which they were hung in the Queen's Bazaar, and Walters numbered the pictures by their location in the Club, room by room. This provides remarkable clues as to how the interior of the Club was arranged at this time.

C. K. Adams also followed this order for his catalogue of 1936, despite frequent rearrangements of the pictures. Adams's catalogue was the first attempt to view them as works of art rather than theatrical snap shots. It consisted of 632 entries for paintings and drawings with a further 27 added in his 1948 supplement. He removed the engravings and photographs included in Walters' catalogue.

By 1997 the number of works listed in Geoffrey Ashton's Pictures in the Garrick Club had increased to 972 paintings and drawings, with 55 sculptures added for the first time. This increase was caused by the number of acquisitions since 1948, and also by the fact that the De Wilde watercolours and some other drawings, which had been previously catalogued in groups, were now listed individually. Completed after Ashton's untimely death, under the editorial supervision of Kalman A Burnim and Andrew Wilton, this publication was by far the most ambitious attempt to create a complete and scholarly catalogue of the Club's Collections; it was also the first attempt to illustrate with photographs the majority of the collection. It would later be joined by Burnim and Wilton's 2001 catalogue of The Richard Bebb Collection in the Garrick Club, and the supplementary volume Brief Lives: Sitters and Artists in the Garrick Club Collection by Burnim and John Baskett (with contributions by Edward A Langhans) in 2003.

As the Garrick Club enters the Twenty-First Century, the Collection has continued to grow. There are increasing requests by curators to borrow works for exhibition, and the renovation of the Club House has provided an opportunity for extensive conservation work to be undertaken on the Collection. With so many movements of paintings it was felt that perhaps now was the time for a computerised catalogue, and the Garrick Club Works of Art Database was born.

At its heart lies all the information from the 1997, 2001 and 2003 publications, with the main catalogue supplemented by all new discoveries, acquisitions, and corrections: at the time of release there are currently over 1230 paintings, drawings, sculpture and figurines listed. An ongoing cataloguing project has now also added some of the print collections to this, with the total number of objects approaching 3000. This is a figure that is guaranteed to continue to rise in the future, and the database, will continue to grow with the Collection, providing accurate and up to date information on the catalogue and the objects' locations.

About the Authors

The Works of Art Database is by its very nature a collaborative creature; the information it contains comes from various sources as outlined above, and search results can include notices by several authors, which may not always be obvious. It is therefore felt desirable to introduce the authors and explain their contributions.

Geoffrey Ashton

The eminent theatre and art historian, the late Dr Geoffrey Ashton, had been commissioned to compile a catalogue of the Garrick Club Collection on behalf of the Club, by the late Sir Anthony Lousada, former Chairman of the Works of Art Sub-Committee, in 1982. He was still engaged on the project when he was struck down by illness, and sadly died in 1991. He had asked Andrew Wilton to assist in bringing the work to a publishable form, and in 1997 this was achieved, under the editorial guidance of Wilton, and Professor Kalman A Burnim; Pictures in the Garrick Club stands as a memorial to their friendship with Geoffrey Ashton and to his scholarship in the field of British theatrical painting and illustration. His meticulous research is at the heart of every entry for the paintings and drawings that were in the Collection at that time.

John Baskett

The current Chairman of the Garrick Club Works of Art Sub-Committee, John Baskett compiled the artists' biographies for Brief Lives: Sitters and Artists in the Garrick Club Collection, which are included in this database.

Kalman A Burnim

Fletcher Professor of Drama, Emeritus, Tufts University, Kal Burnim was co-editor with Andrew Wilton of Ashton's Pictures in the Garrick Club and with whom he later co-authored The Richard Bebb Collection in the Garrick Club. He was also the compiler of the sitters' biographies for Brief Lives: Sitters and Artists in the Garrick Club Collection, all of which are included in this database.

Tanya Kieslich

A member of the conservation team responsible for the Garrick Club Collection, Tanya Kieslich created and programmed the Garrick Club Works of Art Database. Initially a tool for recording the location of works and tracking their movements, she quickly realised the potential for a fully digitised catalogue, which she was then commissioned to design.

Edward A Langhans

Professor of Drama and Theatre, Emeritus, at the University of Hawaii, Edward Langhans contributed a number of notices for sitters to Brief Lives: Sitters and Artists in the Garrick Club Collection. These have been included in the database and can be identified by the abbreviation [EAL] at the end of the entry.

Marcus Risdell

The art historian responsible for compiling the database, Marcus Risdell undertook the cataloguing of the prints and miscellaneous collections of the Club. From 2004 he has been employed by the Garrick Club as its Librarian and Archivist.

Andrew Wilton

Former Keeper and Senior Research Fellow at the Tate Gallery, Andrew Wilton was co-editor with Kalman A Burnim of Ashton's Pictures in the Garrick Club. They also co-authored The Richard Bebb Collection in the Garrick Club.

For computerised sorting of the Garrick Club Collection, all catalogue numbers must be given in full in the database: that is they must be four digits long with a relevant prefix. These prefixes are explained here in alphabetical order.

• B ---- The object is part of the Richard Bebb Collection, and the catalogue numbers correspond to those used in The Richard Bebb Collection in the Garrick Club.
• BA ---- These works are mounted into a bound common-place book presented by David Roberts to his grand-daughter Christine Bicknell; the catalogue numbers reflect their position in the album.
• CL ---- Clocks. The order reflects that in which they were catalogued.
• G ---- These correspond to the catalogue numbers for paintings and drawings, as found in Pictures in the Garrick Club up to 972. Above this they reflect the order in which they were acquired.
• H ---- When the collection of Hogarth prints was rediscovered, they were bound into a folio volume that was in such a poor state of repair, that it was considered best if they were removed, conserved and mounted. [See notes on provenances below.] When they were catalogued into the database their order within this folio was preserved in their catalogue number. Numbers with a letter at the end show that multiple engravings were mounted on the same page [eg. H0051a, H0051b, etc.]
• M ---- Theatrical Memorabilia. The order reflects that in which they were catalogued.
• P ---- There is no significance in the ordering of the print collection, although whenever possible it was attempted to group similar items together, otherwise it reflects the order in which they were catalogued.
• PM ---- The prefix was originally chosen when this collection of prints was believed to have once belonged to Charles Mathews, however this is now known to have not been possible. [See notes on provenances below.] The numbers follow the order that the prints appear in the volumes, and the order they can be found on each page, from upper left to lower right.
• S ---- These correspond to the catalogue numbers for sculpture, as found in Pictures in the Garrick Club up to S55. Above this they reflect the order in which they were acquired.
• SI ---- Silver Collections. The order reflects that in which they were catalogued.
• SP ---- The Spielmann Collection of Shakespeare cameos and badges.
• Z ---- Those numbers which are prefixed as such do not relate to any actual physical object, but direct the reader to a work of art relevant to their search results where the sitter requested is not the primary sitter represented, and therefore they do not appear in searches by catalogue number.

• A&R: English Theatrical Literature 1500-1900 A Bibliography. Edited by James Arnott and John Robinson (London, 1970).
• Baker 1764: David Erskine Baker, The Companion to the Play-House. 2 vols (London 1764).
• BD or BDA: Philip H. Highfill, Jr, Kalman A. Burnim, and Edward A. Langhans, A Biographical Dictionary of Actors, Actresses, Musicians, Dancers, Managers, and Other Stage Personnel on the London Stage 1660-1800. Southern Illinois University Press (1973-1993), 16 vols.
• Bebb: Richard Bebb, Great Actors and Singers (privately printed catalogue of his collection of figurines, 1994).
• BEBB: Kalman A. Burnim and Andrew Wilton. The Richard Bebb Collection in the Garrick Club. 2001.
• BMC: Catalogue of Engraved British Portraits in the British Museum. Freeman O'Donohue (London, 1908), 6 vols.
• CKA: C. K. Adams, A Catalogue of the Pictures in the Garrick Club (London, 1936), 1 vol + supplement.
• CM: Charles Mathews
• Davenport Adams: William Davenport Adams, Essays on Literature and the Stage (London, 1891).
• DM: William Oxberry, Dramatic Mirror (London, 1827 & 1828).
• DNB: Dictionary of National Biography.
• DP: Daily Post.
• EB: Encyclopaedia Britannica Online.
• ES: Enciclopedia dello Spettacolo.
• Griffiths: Arthur Griffiths, "The Pictures in the Garrick Club," Fortnightly Review (1886), 39: 350-370.
• Hayes 1968: John Hayes, "Thomas Harris, Gainsborough Dupont and the Theatrical Gallery at Belmont": The Connoisseur (1968), 169: 221-27.
• JC: John Cavanaugh, British Theatre: a Bibliography 1901-1985 (Mottisfont, Hants, 1989).
• Jones 1812: Stephen Jones, Biographica Dramatica (1812).
• M&M: Raymond Mander and Joe Mitchenson Theatre Collection, Jerwood Library of Performing Arts, Trinity College of Music, Greenwich.
• Mathews: Catalogue Raisonne of Mr. Mathews's Gallery of Theatrical Portraits, Now exhibited for the first time, And Forming a Nearly Complete Dramatic Record From the Year 1659 Down to the Present Time. Queen's Bazaar, Oxford Street (London, 1833).
  
  Supplementary Notes to the Catalogue
  

  1) The Watercolours of Charles James Mathews by J W Childe (G0479 G0594)
  
  [The following essay first appeared in Ashton "Pictures in the Garrick Club" 1997 (pp 266-267), supplementary to the individual entries to the watercolours.]
  
  Charles James Mathews was born in Liverpool on 26 December 1803. His father, Charles Mathews, was completing a provincial engagement after his first London season; a season that initiated a thirty-year career as the most successful comic actor of the early nineteenth century. He had started to sink most of his earnings into his collection of theatrical paintings, most notably the series of portraits of his contemporaries by Samuel De Wilde, and the obsession stretched to his son who was portrayed by De Wilde as "The Little Parson" on 25 July 1807. That watercolour is now in the National Theatre; G0595 in the Garrick Club is a mediocre copy that shows the three-year-old Mathews Jr dressed in the costume in which he used to entertain his father and friends.
  
  After an education at Merchant Taylor's and a school in Clapham, on 4 May 1819 Mathews was articled to Augustus Pugin for four years on 4 May 1819. His first work as an architect was the gothic picture gallery and library added to Ivy Cottage, his father's house at Highgate. In 1823 he was employed by Lord Blessington, and was swept away to Naples where he met Lady Blessington and the Comte D'Orsay. With all expenses paid by his father, his life was extremely fashionable and amusing. He gained diplomas in Milan and Florence; in the latter city he helped to design a theatre for Lord Normanby in the Palazzo San Clementi. The stage was the same size as that of the Haymarket in London, and Mathews painted a drop cloth with a view of Florence. He also took part in the theatricals, playing such parts as Tony Lumpkin and Falstaff. Back in London, he was for a while District Surveyor of Bow and Bethnal Green, but was restless in that position, and when his father died in 1835 Mathews took up his father's profession.
  
  The elder Mathews's one remaining asset had been a half share in the Adelphi Theatre, and it was there that his son joined Frederick Henry Yates to begin his second career. As the son of a famous theatrical father, and with his considerable reputation in amateur theatricals, Mathews might have been expected to do quite well, but he still regarded himself as a gentleman, and rather than act he decided to write. His melodrama Mandrin, performed on 28 September 1835, was an abject failure, and Mathews retired from the Adelphi to the bosom of Mme Vestris at the Olympic. She had been one of the most considerable figures in the European theatre for twenty years, and after a career as the best known of all travesty actresses she moved into management at the Olympic in 1831. Mathews's arrival ended her search for the right sort of leading man, and after their marriage in 1838 they went on to manage Covent Garden for three seasons, from September 1839 to April 1842. Unfortunately, managing a company of 684 people proved too much for the couple, and Mathews went to debtor's prison and then was declared a bankrupt with £30,000 debts. He ventured no more into management, and spent the rest of his life as a performer.
  
  The watercolours of James Warren Childe (c.1768-1862) show Charles James Mathews in parts that he created or played for the first time between 1835 and 1845. The drawings are assumed to date from about 1845, as Mathews is not depicted in any part played exclusively after then. The first documented appearance of the drawings, however, was not until 24 July 1878 when they were sold as lot 557 in the Mathews sale. At that sale Childe was not identified as the artist. The drawings were bought by a Mr Parker, and were presented to the Garrick Club in 1879 by Robert Walters.
  
  Childe started his professional life as a very bad miniaturist and gradually improved. He exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1815 to 1853, and at the Society of British Artists from 1827 to 1840. A large proportion of his output was theatrical, although there is no mention of him in early nineteenth-century theatrical memoirs. Signed examples of his work, notably two watercolours of Charles and John Mockler that were sold at Sotheby's 17 May 1979 (lot 106), leave no doubt that he is the author of the Garrick Club drawings.
  
  Most of the Childe drawings show Mathews in contemporary comedy, dressed immaculately in the height of current fashion. It was the role of the dandy, endlessly and minutely varied, that he was best known. In fact, many of the drawings can be seen as fashion plates rather than theatrical portraits. To the London theatre goer of the early Victorian era Charles Mathews was the perfect gentleman. He assumed the part with glee, and described his style, slightly tongue in cheek, in his autobiography, edited by Charles Dickens Jr and published posthumously in 1879: "The lighter phase of comedy, representing the more natural and less laboured school of modern life, and holding the mirror up to nature without regard to the conventionalities of the theatre, was the aim I had in view." He was clearly the most artfully "naturalistic" actor of his period, and he exuded the sort of relaxed confidence on stage given to very few - Gerald Du Maurier earlier this century, for instance, and Rex Harrison more recently.
  
  Attired in character Mathews clearly did not allow the part he was playing to stand in the way of his own personality; the fact that his own natural elegance was disguised became part of the joke. An early example of a heavy disguise was his role of Prince Riquet in Riquet with the Tuft by James Robinson Planché and Charles Dance (G0575). This "Grand Comical, Allegorical, Magical, Musical Burlesque Burletta in One Act" was the Christmas offering at the Olympic for 1836 37; the cast included Mme Vestris as the Princess Emeralda. The entry of Prince Riquet in the third scene, the Grand Hall of Audience, is described in some detail in the stage directions: "The Litter is opened, and Prince Riquet comes out of it - He is hunchbacked, bow legged, with a bump over one eye, and bald headed with the exception of one tuft of very red hair. He is richly attired and wears a miniature of Emeralda about his neck." It is satisfying to see that Childe's watercolour agrees in all respects with the stage directions, including a rather curious interpretation of the bump over the eye.
  
  In the following Christmas season, opening on 26 December 1837, the Olympic presented Planché and Dance's version of a more familiar fairy story, Puss in Boots, which opened on 26 December 1837. Mathews played Puss (G0572) and his wife again put on male attire as "Ralph (soi disant Marquis of Carabas)".
  
  Mathews's Puss costume was made by Miss Glover, the best known theatrical costumier of her day. Her account books, which are in the Garrick Club library, indicate that she provided costumes for many of the principal actors of the period, including Charles Kean, Charles Kemble, and W. C. Macready. There is enough detail in the accounts to enable some sort of reconstruction of many of the costumes glimpsed in theatre portraits of, say, Charles Kean as Hamlet or Macready as Macbeth. However, in combination with the Childe watercolours of Mathews, Miss Glover's accounts become the major source for our knowledge of mid nineteenth-century theatre costume.
  
  The most interesting of the Childe watercolours from the point of view of costume are the series of five drawings of Mathews as Colonel Feignwell in Mrs Centlivre's A Bold Stroke for a Wife, revived at the Olympic in 1836 as The Gentleman Outwitted (G0514 G0518). It is an amusing play in which Colonel Feignwell, the hero, attempts to dupe the guardians of his ladylove by appearing in a variety of disguises. G0515 shows him as the Dutchman and G0517 as a Quaker. Miss Glover provided "A Dutchman's Coat" at £2.10.0, "One Waistcoat to match the Dutchman's Dress" at 10s and "A Quaker's Dress Coat, waistcoat and Breeches" for £5 as well as "2 Leather Belts, black and brown" at 5/ , a "Large steel buckle" at 4d, and other items. Mathews's costume bill for this production came to £14.11.0; he apparently provided the other costumes out of his own wardrobe. Presumably he had inherited a huge theatrical wardrobe from his father, but new costumes were evidently a major expense.
  
  G0591 shows one of Miss Glover's most lavish costumes for Mathews, as Witwoud in The Way of the World, which opened at the Haymarket on 17 December 1842. It cost him £8 even though he provided most of the materials. Mathews paid Miss Glover for "Making a complete Costume Court Suit of Cut Velvet, Coat, Waistcoat and Breeches (Character Way of the World / Costume 1699) Lining of White Satin, interlining, Gold fringe trimming, frogs, Button holes &c. (Velvet and buttons found)." It is interesting that Miss Glover was so specific about the dating of her costume, and one wonders what sort of pattern books or visual stimulation she was able to use.
  
  The texts of many of the plays that Mathews appeared in no longer exist, but a few have survived. The best known of the contemporary plays was Dion Boucicault's London Assurance, which opened at Covent Garden on 4 March 1841. The stage directions describe the costumes as being "Of the day - striking and very fashionable," and the two relevant drawings, G0510 and G0511, show Mathews at his sartorial peak as Dazzle, the young ne'er do well. He has a fine line in trouser leg, fastened with instep straps under his highly polished boots, elaborate waistcoats, high silken cravats, white gloves, and a curious off the shoulder look in jackets and coats with wide lapels and huge buttons. Perhaps there is a hint of theatrical exaggeration, but there is no doubt that this is the gentlemanly appearance that impressed his public.
  
  There is a slight prettiness to Childe's watercolours of Mathews which makes the sitter come across as a spineless and pink cheeked adolescent. This impression can partly be attributed to Childe's ineptitude and partly to the fact that sympathy wanes when one is confronted by 116 drawings of the same person and of exactly the same size and format. On the other hand, Childe's gentle touch manages to conjure up Mathews's charm, his debonair lack of theatrical bombast, and his casual gentlemanly insinuation. It is an aspect of the nineteenth-century British theatre overshadowed by the enormous interest in Shakespearean production and the development of "realistic" drama.
  
  In each instance the provenance is Charles J. Mathews, Parker, R. Walters. Unfortunately Ashton's "Pictures in the Garrick Club" could only illustrate a selection of the portraits, however this has been remedied for the database.
  
  2) Sir Charles Ibbetson's "Theatrical Portrait" Print Collection (PM----)
  
  The seven large volumes that make up the "Theatrical Portrait" Print Collection were presented to the Garrick Club by Sir Charles Ibbetson Bart on February 18th 1854. They are listed as Gift 121 ("theatrical prints") in the Presentations Book. They were also listed in the "Garrick Club Library Catalogue 1861" as follows:
  
  "Portraits. A Collection with notices from contemporary prints, presented by Sir C. Ibbetson, Bart.
  Vol i. Shakespeare to Garrick.
  ii. Garrick & his Contemporaries.
  iii. Smith to John Kemble.
  iv. Kemble & his Contemporaries.
  v. Cooke, Kean, etc. 1800-1822.
  vi. Actors since 1822.
  vii. French & Italian
  [7 Folio.]"
  
  This part of the provenance is certain, and the following minutes appear from the Committee of 18th February 1854:
  
  "The Chairman requested the following letter be sent to Sir Charles Ibbetson Bart.
  
  'Sir, I have the honour by the direction of the Committee to acknowledge the receipt of your splendid presentation of theatrical prints, and to offer on their behalf and that of the Club generally their very best thanks for this most valuable & unique addition to the library of the Club.'"
  
  At some point they have been rebound and Ibbetson's library plate removed from all but Vol vii, "French and Italian" which was not rebound.
  
  Geoffrey Ashton believed these volumes formed Charles Mathews' Print Collection [as can be seen in his provenances for the drawings found in these volumes which were catalogued by him as part of the 1987 "Pictures in the Garrick Club].
  
  That they could not be from Mathews Collection is made certain by a press cutting in Vol v, pasted opposite f19. This presents the sale list of Mathews Library sale as it was published in 1835, with the following account by the person who was annotating. [NB this is the only place where the compiler writes in the first person]:
  
  "…one of the papers (the Age) stated that the produce of the sale exceeded £1000, which appears small when the great value of the collection is considered. I regretted much that I was unable to attend the sale, having only been accidentally informed of it a day or two before it took place, as having been well acquainted with Mr Mathews for several years, I wished very much to have added to this collection some prints which he possessed, and which I have never been able to meet with elsewhere, but it was impossible to suppose that the sale would have taken place so soon after his death which happened on the 28th June 1835 and the sale was about the end of August in the same year."
  
  The collection continues to be compiled by the same hand up to 1838 [the date on the latest print]. So if not Charles Mathews, just who was the collector? Sir Charles Ibbetson himself, and James Winston were both considered. Winston, the Club's first Secretary, was a candidate as the volumes have been indexed by him, but the handwriting of the compiler is different. However, comparison with some other bound volumes, "Charles Mathews At Home", and an extra-illustrated copy of "Memoirs of Charles Mathews, Comedian" by Mrs Mathews (4 vols. 1839), both in the Garrick Club Library, illuminated similarities in handwriting, style of commentary and format, and they were all being compiled around the same time; these volumes fortunately all have the signature "John Dillon" inscribed on their introductory pages. In "Charles Mathews At Home" he writes:
  
  "A large proportion of the contents of the volume I had from Mr Tayleure, formerly an actor, but who latterly bought a shop selling theatrical pictures, autographs etc, near St Martin's Church. I understand he had them from Mr. Mathews…"
  
  Mr Tayleure as an actor was painted by George Clint and is hanging in the coffee room [see G0787]. Here we have an interesting insight into theatrical print selling and the closeness between actor, printer, artist, seller, and public within Covent Garden, but just who was John Dillon?
  
  In January 1818 a play called "Retribution; or the Chieftain's Daughter. A Tragedy" by John Dillon, was performed over nine nights at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden. The author is described as having sent the manuscript to the theatre "without Introduction or personal Interest", yet "received their most polite Attention."
  
  In the cast was William Charles Macready and in his "Reminiscences, and Selections from his Diaries and Letters" 1875 vol 1 p159) we find the following:
  
  "On the 1st of January, 1818, a new tragedy was produced at Covent Garden. The author, John Dillon, a very young man, was the librarian of Dr. Simmons of Paddington, famous for a very splendid collection of valuable books. With great promise of dramatic power, as evinced in his first essay, he wisely left the poet's 'idle' for the more lucrative pursuits of commerce, and became partner in the well known firm of Morrison, Dillon & Co. His play was called 'Retribution…"
  
  So the provenance of the "Theatrical Portrait" Print Collection can be constructed as follows: Compiled by John Dillon up to the year 1838; at some point they enter the library of Sir Charles Ibbetson Bart, by whom presented to the Garrick Club, 1854.
  
  NB. At the time of publication, only the first two volumes had so far been catalogued.
  
  3) David Garrick's William Hogarth Collection (H0001-H0082)
  
  This collection of Hogarth engravings are rumoured to have been discovered, bound into a large folio volume, underneath the billiard table some time around 1968, and as such did not have a known provenance. The volume consisted of 82 sheets containing in all 106 engravings, with one print, described as a Play Bill, missing. Also in the volume was an accompanying account slip, signed from Hogarth to David Garrick, pasted inside the front boards, which is now held in the library. Because of the condition of the volume, the prints were initially transferred to a portfolio and have since been conserved and mounted. The order of the original volume was recorded as each sheet was separated [and is now preserved in the catalogue numbers], and the prints were identified and noted in a copy of the Catalogue for the Hogarth Exhibition at the British Museum, 1964-65. This was undertaken by the Club's Librarian at the time, Dorothy Anderson, who placed the following note in the works of art records:
  
  "There is no record in the Club of the collection's provenance or whose gift it was to the library. It may have come from the Hon. A. Dillon who presented the book, Trusler "Hogarth moralized" (1768), to the Library on 10 March, 1834. In the Sale Catalogue of Garrick's Library (1823) there is the following description of a Hogarth Collection: "item 1330: Hogarth's (W.) WORKS, consisting of 106 plates, brilliant impressions. From the intimacy that existed between Garrick and Hogarth this is, as may be expected, a very superior copy; every print is in the best state, chiefly the earliest, such as 'Strolling Actresses', 'March to Finchley' &c. It also has the 'Before' and 'After', a MS. Burlesque play-bill, with coat of arms, and a bill for prints, with Hogarth's signature. / Forman (T.S.) £100-16-0" It is most probable, though it cannot be stated positively, that this is the collection from Garrick's Library Sale." D. Anderson 20 November, 1968."
  
  This was an opinion shared by W. Plumer, a Hogarth specialist, in a memorandum forwarded to the Garrick Club dated 17th May 1977 (also in the works of art records).
  
  However further research has now made it possible to piece together a provenance for the collection, which shows that Garrick's portfolio is indeed that which is in the Garrick Club today.
  
  The bill of sale, headed "Prints put into Mr Garrick's Book" is made out to David Garrick from William Hogarth. It is for twelve prints and the cost of binding (total £1-17-6). The latest prints on the list, "The Four Stages of Cruelty" and "Beer Street and Gin Lane", date from 1750/51, so the bill must date from then onwards, and the fact that they were added "into Mr. Garrick's Book" suggests that Garrick already had a substantial collection in his volume. By 1834 and the sale of Garrick's Library, the description does indeed seem to match that of the Garrick Club collection.
  
  However, there is a record for a gift of a folio volume of Hogarth prints to the Club; Gift 389 (in the Presentations Book and 1917 List of Members), "Volume of Original Plates by Wm. Hogarth", given by Mr Fairfax Murray, January 7th 1917, which was of significant importance to have been discussed at the General Committee of June 7th 1917, noted as item 3 in the minutes: "Sir John Hare read a letter to Mr Norman Forbes Robertson, from Mr Fairfax Murray offering for the Club's acceptance a volume of the original plates of Wm. Hogarth. Chairman requested to write to accept this offer with the Committees appreciative thanks."
  
  Mr Fairfax Murray (1849-1919), Pre-Raphaelite painter, art collector and dealer, and by this time increasingly a philanthropist, had purchased Hogarth's "Satan, Sin and Death" 1735-1740, oil on canvas, 61.9x74.5, which is now in the Tate Gallery (T00790). This has an intriguing provenance: the artist's studio, and upon his death (1764) to his wife Jane; c.1767 it is in the possession of David Garrick; sold at Christie's, 1823, bought by T S Forman; W H Forman, and then by descent to A H Browne of Callaly Castle; sold Sotheby's 1899, bought by Charles Fairfax Murray, along with Hogarth's "The Staymaker" c.1744, which was also in the Forman collection.
  
  Thomas Seaton Forman, who bought Garrick's Hogarth portfolio and who is listed in Mrs Garricks sale catalogue as the purchaser [see above], put together a spectacular collection of art and antiquities throughout his life. An undated newspaper clipping [bound into p243 of "David Garrick, a collection of engravings, manuscripts, playbills … etc. compiled ca. 1830 by James Winston" in the Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington DC] informs us that Mr Forman was living on the Adelphi Terrace in 1823, so had been a neighbour of Mrs Garrick.
  
  We know from the provenance of "Satan, Sin and Death" that it stayed with the Forman family, becoming part of the large collection of Thomas Seaton's younger brother William Henry Forman (c.1794-1869), which he kept in a purpose built museum at one of his homes, Pippbrook House, Dorking in Surrey. Upon his death the "London Illustrated News" informs us that the house was left to Thomas Seaton's widow Elizabeth, but that the residue of the estate, presumably including the contents of the museum were left to William's nephew, Alexander Henry Brown, the eldest son of his sister Helena, who had married a Major Arthur Henry Browne of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.
  
  Before the removal of the contents of Pippbrook House a "Catalogue of the Works of Antiquity and Art collected by the late William Henry Forman... and removed in 1890 to Callaly Castle, Northumberland" was produced by Major Arthur Henry Browne and W Chaffers. Upon the death of Elizabeth, who had since remarried, the estate was bedevilled by family disputes; Pippbrook House was eventually sold up by order of the Court of Chancery, and the Forman Collection was dispersed at a sale by Sotheby's on 19th June 1899.
  
  It is not known exactly when Fairfax Murray purchased the portfolio, whether at the Sotheby's sale, or privately at an earlier date, [no information has yet been found in his diary or personal papers] but it is certain that he would have been aware of the Forman Collection, and its contents would certainly appeal to his discerning eye.
  
  The provenance can therefore be constructed as follows:
  
  David Garrick; 1779 to Mrs Garrick; sold at the sale of "The Library, Splendid Books of Prints, Poetical and Historical Tracts of David Garrick, Esq." Wednesday 23rd April 1823 at "The Poets' Gallery" 39 Fleet Street (lot 1330), bought by Thomas Seaton Forman; William Henry Forman, and then by descent to Alexander Henry Browne of Callaly Castle; either bought privately or through Sotheby's 1899 by Charles Fairfax Murray, by whom given to the Garrick Club, 7th Jan 1917.
  
  [I would like to thank David Elliott, author of "Charles Fairfax Murray: The Unknown Pre-Raphaelite" 2000, and grandson of Fairfax Murray, and Duncan Mirylees, County Archivist at the Surrey History Centre, for their invaluable information and suggestions in piecing together this provenance.]
  
  NB. H0083-H0097 were not part of the David Garrick Folio, but rather were part of Gift 254, bequeathed to the Garrick Club by E D Hodgson Esq., 1897.
  
  

  
  
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