The Digital Ark: Early Modern Collections of Curiosities in England and Scotland, 1580-1700
Curiosity and Enlightenment: Collectors and Collections from the Sixteenth to the Nineteenth Century
Secondary Title (i.e. Proceedings Title): Periodical Title: Publication Type:Book, Whole Authors:MacGregor,Arthur Editors: Publisher:Yale University Press Place of Publication:New Haven Publication Date:2007 Alternate Date (i.e. Conference Date): Volume: Issue: Start Page: End Page: Abstract: Descriptors/Keywords: ISBN:9780300124934 (cloth : alk. paper), 0300124937 (cloth : alk. paper) URL:Documents in Print Item: No Documents Listed in Print Item Attached People: Collector (major) - Courten, William (28 Mar 1642-26 Mar 1702)
Collector (major) - Kemp, John (1665-1717)
N/A - Salwey, Posthumous (-1698)
Collector (major) - Sloane, Hans (1660-1753)
Mentions or references - Salwey, Posthumous (-1698)
Location(s): No Locations Attached To This
Bibliographic Source(s): No Bibliographic Sources Attached To This Item
Items Which List This As A Bibliographic Source: English Entomological Methods in the Sev..., page: 203, notes:
Images Contained: No Images Attached To This Item
Objects Contained: No Objects Attached To This Item
Annotation:William Courten, "owner of a rich cabinet of curiosities," gave advice on preservation of insect specimens to his nephew Posthumus Salwey bound for Gibraltar in the 1680s (140). Among Courten's papers at the BL are "Receipts [in various languages] for preserving natural products." He Favoured "preserving heavy-bodied insects either in a liquor produced by distilled myrrh, aloes and saffron in turpentine and brandy, or in another distilled from camphor, sage, and turpentine Cites Wilkinson, 1966, p.143.)
Courten and Sloane:
By the end of the seventeenth century private cabinets of the stamp of that of William Courten and John Kemp (whose collection incorporated material from several earlier collections, including that of Jacob Spon) at first vied with and later were subsumed into the collection of Sir Hans Sloane. This collection numbered some 23,000 pieces by the time of Sloane's death, when it was joined with the remnants of Sir Robert Cotton's cabinet in the founding collection of the British Museum. Not until the arrival there in 1825 of the 10,000 coin s and medals from George
III's collection , previously kept in the library at Buckingham House, was its character to be substantially altered. The 4,500 Greek and Roman coins acquired on that occasion represented a fairly modest collection (compared, for example, to the 6,000 in it William Hamilton's collection and 30,000 in William Hunter's cabinet); its organization too--merely in alphabetical order--has been remarked on as being rather conservative at this date, but it remain the most substantial benefaction ever acquired by the Department of Coins and Medals (203),