Before I upload new objects to Carlos Collections Online, I ensure that everything we currently know about that object's provenance is recorded in the provenance field. While reviewing our Greek and Roman collection, I came across object 2005.062.001, a Cypriot spindle flask. The object has been on loan to the Houston Museum of Natural Science for ten years, but there is a note in our database that states: “Adhesive label on underside of vessel reads: ‘15. May. 1884. Sotheby Lot 1107. Lecythos from Cyprus. Lawrence-Cesnola Collection.’” As my boss is fond of pointing out, I have trust issues. When I saw the note linking our vessel with the Lawrence-Cesnola Collection and an 1884 Sotheby sale, I was skeptical, to say the least. I don’t know where that label came from or when it was put on the vessel. Luckily, both the Lawrence-Cesnola Collection and the Sotheby sale were easy to research online.
Alessandro Palma di Cesnola (1839–1914) was a colorful character. The Italian-born Cesnola served in the military in Crimea and Italy before traveling to America. In 1873, he was appointed honorary U.S. vice-consul in Paphos on the southwest coast of Cyprus. With the financial backing of British businessman Edwin Henry Lawrence (1819–1891), who was also his future father-in-law, Cesnola collected and excavated a large number of antiquities on Cyprus. His activities came to a halt in 1878 when the British, who had newly occupied Cyprus, arrested Cesnola for conducting private excavations and exporting antiquities without a license. After receiving a slap on the wrist, Cesnola left Cyprus in February 1879. After failing to sell his collection to the British Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum, the bulk of it was ultimately sold at Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge in London between 1883 and 1892.
Using WorldCat, I was able to confirm that one of the sales was titled Cypriote Antiquities, Called the Lawrence-Cesnola Collection. Part II. 1884 May 15–17, which coincides with the sale date on the adhesive label of our vessel. I Googled “Sotheby 15 May 1884 Lawrence-Cesnola” to see if I could find a copy of the catalog online. One of the top results was even better than the catalog itself: a site hosted by the University of Oxford called Rethinking Pitt-Rivers: Analysing the Activities of a Nineteenth-Century Collector.
The website explores the life and collections of Augustus Henry Lane Fox Pitt Rivers (1827–1900). After retiring from the British Army in 1882, Pitt Rivers built a sizable and eclectic collection. The best-known part of his collection, designated the First Collection, was donated to the University of Oxford in 1884 and remains in the permanent collections of the Pitt Rivers Museum. At his private estate in Farnham, Pitt Rivers built the Second Collection, with the goal of displaying it in a private museum on the estate. The Second Collection comprised thousands of artifacts purchased between 1880 and 1900. Pitt Rivers kept detailed acquisition notes for the Second Collection—bound volumes that provided a source, description, and price for each acquisition, including many objects purchased from the Lawrence-Cesnola Collection. The Farnham museum continued until the 1960s, when the collections were dispersed by the Pitt Rivers family.
On the Rethinking Pitt-Rivers website is a page devoted to objects purchased by Pitt Rivers from the Lawrence-Cesnola sale in May 1884. The information is taken from the annotated sale catalog of the auctioneers and cross-referenced with the Second Collection Ledgers. The first purchase listed on the site is lot 1107: two vessels, one of which is “a pale red glazed lecythus.” What I needed to confirm was that the vessel purchased by Augustus in 1884 was the vessel now on loan to Houston. We emailed the Pitt Rivers Museum, which was able to consult its records, including the Second Collection Ledgers. On page 33 of Volume II of the Second Collection Ledgers was the record of Pitt Rivers purchasing lot 1107 from the Sotheby sale of the Lawrence-Cesnola Collection in May 1884, including a detailed colored drawing with measurements. Thanks to the assistance of the Pitt Rivers Museum (and the internet), I was able to confirm and update our object's provenance to:
Ex coll. Edwin Henry Lawrence (1819–1891) and Alessandro Palma di Cesnola (1839–1914) [Lawrence-Cesnola Collection], until 1884. Ex coll. Augustus Henry Lane Fox Pitt Rivers (1827–1900), Farnham, England, purchased from Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge, London, May 15, 1884, lot 1107 (part). With Fragments of Time, Medfield, Massachusetts, by 2003. Purchased by MCCM from Fragments of Time.
