John Britton's ‘Celtic Cabinet’ in Devizes Museum and its Context

Abstract

The ‘Celtic Cabinet’, acquired from John Britton when the Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Society and Devizes Museum were founded in 1853, is published for the first time. The cabinet, with its watercolours and plaster models, is described. The megalithic subjects of the watercolours which decorate it are identified; two of the paintings are ascribed to John Sell Cotman; the others are related to topographic artists in John Britton's employment. The models in the cabinet of Stonehenge and Avebury are identified as standard products of Hen Browne, the first guardian of Stonehenge. The meaning and associations of ‘Celtic’ as a name for megalithic antiquities are explored. It is shown that the cabinet was made, probably about 1824, for George Watson Taylor of Erlestoke Park, Devizes; the circumstances of its making are discussed, together with the intellectual context of the piece and its relation to Britton's plan for a Druidical Antiquarian Company.