George Shaw
Museum Leverianum, containing select specimens from the museum of the late Sir Ashton Lever, 1792
Found at
Sothebys,
London
The Library of Henry Rogers Broughton, 2nd Baron Fairhaven Part I, Lot 208
6. May - 18. May 2022
The Library of Henry Rogers Broughton, 2nd Baron Fairhaven Part I, Lot 208
6. May - 18. May 2022
Estimate: XX.XXX
Price realised: XX.XXX
Price realised: XX.XXX
Description
George Shaw
Museum Leverianum, containing select specimens from the museum of the late Sir Ashton Lever. [London]: James Parkinson, 1792
FIRST EDITION, 2 parts in one volume, 4to (275 x 210mm.), titles, dedications, and text in Latin and English, 72 hand-coloured engraved plates after Sarah Stone, Philip Reinagle, Charles Reuben Ryley, Sydenham Edwards and others, contemporary red morocco, some paper toning, binding rebacked to style
RARE. A record of one of the most comprehensive natural history collections of eighteenth-century England, including several fine plates after Philip Reinagle, famed for his contribution to Thornton's Temple of Flora.
Sir Ashton Lever's collecting began with live birds but expanded into all fields of natural history and many of ethnology. He opened his collection to the public in 1774, having moved it from his home in Alkrington Hall, Lancashire, to Leicester House, London (site of modern-day Leicester Square). However, by 1783 his expenses in maintaining it rose so high that he attempted to sell it to the British Museum, whose trustees, however, declined the offer. Lever was forced to sell the collection by lottery, with tickets at a guinea a piece. The winner was James Parkinson, publisher of the present work.
Parkinson dispersed the collection at auction in 1806.
LITERATURE:
Fine Bird Books, p. 108; Nissen ZBI 3835; Wood, p. 566
Museum Leverianum, containing select specimens from the museum of the late Sir Ashton Lever. [London]: James Parkinson, 1792
FIRST EDITION, 2 parts in one volume, 4to (275 x 210mm.), titles, dedications, and text in Latin and English, 72 hand-coloured engraved plates after Sarah Stone, Philip Reinagle, Charles Reuben Ryley, Sydenham Edwards and others, contemporary red morocco, some paper toning, binding rebacked to style
RARE. A record of one of the most comprehensive natural history collections of eighteenth-century England, including several fine plates after Philip Reinagle, famed for his contribution to Thornton's Temple of Flora.
Sir Ashton Lever's collecting began with live birds but expanded into all fields of natural history and many of ethnology. He opened his collection to the public in 1774, having moved it from his home in Alkrington Hall, Lancashire, to Leicester House, London (site of modern-day Leicester Square). However, by 1783 his expenses in maintaining it rose so high that he attempted to sell it to the British Museum, whose trustees, however, declined the offer. Lever was forced to sell the collection by lottery, with tickets at a guinea a piece. The winner was James Parkinson, publisher of the present work.
Parkinson dispersed the collection at auction in 1806.
LITERATURE:
Fine Bird Books, p. 108; Nissen ZBI 3835; Wood, p. 566
Artwork auctioned at three times the upper estimate price
When the work Museum Leverianum, containing select specimens from the museum of the late Sir Ashton Lever, 1792 by George Shaw was auctioned at Sothebys in London in May last year, the result exceeded expectations many times over. The upper estimate was set at a - in retrospect quite modest - GBP 4,000.00 but the actual price achieved was more than three times as high at GBP 15,120.00 (€ 17,787.24). Admittedly, works by George Shaw have also been auctioned for a multiple of this price - according to our records, the highest result so far was achieved by the work Undergrowth in June 2013 with an auction result of GBP 79,875.00 (€ 93,228.43).
Kunstwerk zum Dreifachen des oberen Schätzpreises versteigert
Als die Arbeit Museum Leverianum, containing select specimens from the museum of the late Sir Ashton Lever, 1792 von George Shaw im Mai letzten Jahres bei Sothebys in London versteigert wurde, übertraf das Ergebnis die Erwartungen um ein Vielfaches. Der obere Schätzpreis war mit – rückwirkend betrachtet recht bescheidenen – GBP 4.000,00 angesetzt, der tatsächlich erzielte Preis hingegen war mit GBP 15.120,00 (€ 17.787,24) mehr als dreimal so hoch. Freilich wurden Arbeiten von George Shaw auch schon für ein Vielfaches dieses Preises versteigert – das bisher höchste Ergebnis erzielte nach unseren Aufzeichnungen die Arbeit Undergrowth im Juni 2013 mit einem Auktionsergebnis von GBP 79.875,00 (€ 93.228,43).
George Shaw - Auction history
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