recent acquisitions by the department of prints and drawings
TRANSCRIPT
Recent Acquisitions by the Department of Prints and DrawingsSource: The British Museum Quarterly, Vol. 27, No. 3/4 (Winter, 1963-1964), p. 99Published by: British MuseumStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4422830 .
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'4 See Hora, ibid., p. 249. 1s Probably, then, at Osaka or Sakai. 16 i.e. at Yokkaichi? 17 Dai bukan, ed. Hashimoto Hiroshi, re-
vised ed. (Toky6: Dai Bukan Kankakai, I940), i. 183.
as Numata Raisuke, Nihon monshegaku (T6ky6: Meiji Shoin, 1926), pp. 427 ff.
'9 An order of the eighth month, Meiwa 5 (A.D. 1768), prohibited this except in the case of family shrines of the go-sanke branch families, and objects already designated but not yet presented.
20 Art historians should note that the form of the 3-leaved mon changed over the years. Originally
naturalistic, it became more stylized. Early examples have long, narrow, curved stems to the leaves, which are widely separated; later the stems are short, thick, and straight, and the leaves are close together. Also, the number of veins varied at different times and between families. The form on our gun corresponds with Numata's speci- fication (ibid., pp. 440-1) for Tsunayoshi's shogunate.
21 Brinkley, ibid., p. 599; P. Y. Tsuchihashi, Japanese Chronological Tables from 6oi to
x872 A.D. (T6ky6: Sophia University;Press, 195 2), p. ioI; T. Kobayashi, SMchu dokushi nempy5 (Nara, 1955), p. 192.
SHORTER NOTICES
The publication of these shorter notices on recent acquisitions does not preclude a more detailed discussion of the objects in future issues.
RECENT ACQUISITIONS BY THE DEPARTMENT OF
PRINTS AND DRAWINGS
THE Department of Prints and Drawings has been fortunate in being able to purchase a portrait study of a young woman which can be plausibly attributed to the French painter and illustrator, Hubert Franqois Gravelot
(1699-1773). He worked in England for about thirteen years, from 1732 to 1745, and towards the end of this period the young Gainsborough studied under him. The draw-
ing, which is in black chalk heightened by white on buff paper, anticipates to a marked
degree Gainsborough's later work. The
newly acquired drawing was at one time in the collection of the late Mr. A. I. Ellis, a former Superintendent of the Museum
Reading Room. The Department has also purchased,
from the estate of the late Sir Bruce Ingram, a drawing by Edward Burney (I760-1848) showing the 'Eidophusikon', a mechanical
theatre or peepshow (about 6 feet wide by 8 feet deep), invented by Philip James de
Loutherbourg, R.A. (1740-1 812), the open- ing performance of which was given in
February 1781. Contemporary audiences were perhaps
most impressed by the scenes of nature in
tumult, which were accompanied by realistic sound-effects: W. H. Pyne in his Wine and Walnuts (1823) describes the thunder as 'in- finitely grand'. Milton was an obvious source for scenes of this kind and Burney's drawing shows one from Paradise Lost with the Palace of Pandemonium, thousands of demons ris-
ing from 'the horrid lake', and additional effects supplied by de Loutherbourg himself. This formed the final scene of the entertain- ment. No other representation of the con- trivance is known to exist.
AINU CREED AND CULTURE
MRS. BRENDA Z. SELIGMANhas presented to the Department of Ethnography a small
99
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