Book Description

Excerpt from A Guide to the Knowledge of Pottery, Porcelain, and Other Objects of Vertu: Comprising an Illustrated Catalogue of the Bernal Collection of Works of Art, With the Prices at Which They Were Sold by Auction, and the Names of the Present Possessors The present Manual has arisen from accidental circumstances. At the sale of the late Mr. Bernal's extraordinary collection, the numerous and expensive woodcuts which embellished the Auction Catalogue, became mine for a mere trifle. Upon this it occurred to me, that an illustrated volume, comprising the entire Catalogue, with the prices, and the purchasers' or rather present possessors' names, and such incidental remarks and additions as might suggest themselves, would be an acceptable service to amateurs and collectors; - and those whom I consulted thought the same. I therefore took immediate measures for accomplishing this object, but other and more pressing avocations so continuously engrossed most of my disposable time, that its completion has been sadly retarded. In the interim I had been invited by the Rev. Harry Dupuis of Richmond, in common with many of the neighbouring gentry, to take part in a projected Exhibition of works of Art and Science, connected with a series of educational lectures, - a movement in the path of social progress so consonant to my own views and feelings, that I joined in it most cordially. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.