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MORGAN, J. Pierpont. [SMITH, Cecil Harcourt, Sir, introduction and descriptions]
Collection of J. Pierpont Morgan: Bronzes, Antique Greek, Roman, etc.
Including Some Antique Objects in Gold and Silver. Introduction and Descriptions
by Sir Cecil H. Smith.
Paris: Librairie Centrale des Beaux-Arts, 1913.
Antiquarian quarto (the pages 49.5 x 38.5 cm, 19½ x 15¼ in.). One of a likely limitation of 150 copies. Collates [2 ll.], 2 ll. (half-title and title), xvi (introduction), 55 + [1] pp. (descriptions and lists of plates), [2 ll.], with 56 color heliogravure plates, printed on thin paper laid onto blind-paneled mounts rectos only, each with a facing guard-leaf of fine laid paper with letterpress title, and 38 color heliogravure illustrations on thin paper laid into the text, the text pages and plate mounts on heavy hand-made wove paper mounted on stubs. Dark brown half morocco and sprinkled green and brown French shell pattern marbled paper over boards, spine gilt in six compartments, French curl pattern marbled endpapers, top edge gilt, other edges rough cut. Overall fine, a few tiny nicks or scrapes on the covers, the point of one corner worn, outermost edges of the text pages almost imperceptibly age-darkened, the plates and mounts impeccable.
In cataloguing this section of the Morgan Collections, Sir Cecil, then
the Director of The Victoria and Albert Museum, observes that, atypically,
Morgan came to these acquisitions piecemeal on the market (rather than en
bloc) and nevertheless was able to count among his objects several
of immense importance. The 91 entries for the ancient bronzes, dating to
about 2400 B.C., encompass mainly Greek and Roman, with one Assyrian and
a few Egyptian and Graeco-Roman; the 20 entries for ancient gold and silver
include twelve from the famed Cyprus Treasure of Lapethos, including Byzantine
dishes from the renowned David cycle. This volume is of a piece with Bode's
two-volume compilation of Morgan's Renaissance bronzes issued three years
prior by the same publisher in the same exact large format with an explicit
limitation of 150 sets. (Morgan's other publication in Paris in 1913, de
Ricci's compilation of his Renaissance tapestries, was likewise limited
to 150 copies.) A full bibliographical search establishes that the Ancient
Bronzes volume is of slightly greater rarity in worldwide institutional
collections than the Bode Renaissance set, and so the limitation of this
volume may be reasonably surmised at 150 copies, notwithstanding the absence
of a colophon.
Dr. Williamson includes a poignant note about this posthumously issued volume
in his memoir of the Morgan catalogues: "To the final volume, there is a
pathetic interest attached, because the book has only been issued since
the decease of the great collector, and he himself possessed in his library
only the incomplete and advance copy of the illustrations, and a small part
of the letter-press. Those of us to whom Mr. Morgan promised the book did
not receive it till nearly a year after his death, and it is sad to reflect
on the fact that this great volume, superbly illustrated with its long series
of coloured photogravures, was never in its complete setting in the hands
of the connoisseur who commissioned its production." (George C. Williamson,
Behind My Library Door, New York, 1921, 113.)
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