Notes on the Collection of Ancient Marbles in the possession of Sir Charles Nicholson, Bart

Abstract

I have been asked to add a few notes on the collection of ancient monuments of which specimens are published on Plates LXXI. and C. These marbles were formerly in the possession of Mr. George McLeay, who, while residing in India, deposited them in the South Kensington Museum, where Professor Michaelis saw them. Most of them have already been described by Michaelis in his Ancient Marbles in Great Britain pp. 481 seq. Mr. McLeay had a house at Smyrna, and it was in Asia Minor, chiefly at Smyrna and in its neighbourhood, that he collected his antiquities. They have since been presented by him to Sir Charles Nicholson, who has placed them in his house, The Grange, Totteridge, Hertfordshire.Most of these monuments belong to the Roman period of Greek art in Asia Minor. There can be no doubt that the interest attaching to such works will grow with the development and systematisation of the study of archaeology. For we may reasonably hope that, as our power to fix in time and to distinguish with accuracy the broader characteristic points of distinction between Greek and Graeco-Roman art grows, we shall not halt at this stage, but shall advance still further in successful endeavours to establish more detailed distinctions of time and even locality within these broader divisions.