his collection 76, 113–16, 119–20, 121
on collectors 68–69
a connoisseur 24, 68, 81, 91
and country-house collections 57
criticism of South Kensington 70, 111–12
curator at South Kensington Museum 2, 12, 64–65, 67–68, 88, 91, 98
death (1913) 113, 119, 376
dismissal from art referee post 90–92, 106, 108
his estate 119–20
financial matters 72–76, 79, 80, 86, 87, 97–100
Fine Arts Club 12, 71, 81, 82–84, 97
forgeries issue 298–301, 303–4, 307, 310, 311
and Franks 94, 95, 96, 148–49
ill-health 86
in Italy 62–64, 76, 78, 79, 81, 86, 109
knighted (1887) 114
looks for homes for his pieces 115–16
and Marks 275
and Newton Manor 100–102, 104, 110, 119, 197, 376
in Paris 52–56, 58–62, 166
personality 51, 52–53, 86, 91, 99, 105, 292
and Pierpont Morgan 283
relationship with Cole 22, 68, 74, 80, 81, 85–93, 96, 111
relationship with the museum after Cole’s retirement 107–12
and Renaissance 2, 53, 58–59, 103, 246
sells part of his collection 76, 119
Skinner’s attitude to 116, 118
and Special Exhibition 12–14, 19, 24, 41, 47, 81–82, 228–29
Surveyor of Queen’s Pictures 113–14, 119
talent for rewriting the past to his advantage 109
townhouse in York Place 73, 100
Robinson, Marian Elizabeth (née Newton) 73
Rolfe, W. H. 206–7
Romantic movement 23
Rome 78, 79, 148
Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum, Mainz 302
Rosetta Stone 42, 222
Rossetti, Dante Gabriel 251, 257–61, 263, 264, 266, 267, 269, 273, 274, 281, 284, 285, 375, 376
Rossetti, Elizabeth 260
Rossetti, William 258–59
Rothschild family 305, 306
Rotterdam 147, 163, 169, 170, 173
Rouen Museum, Normandy 172
Royal Academy, London 30, 43, 44, 53, 58, 107, 155, 272, 277
Royal Archaeological Institute of Great Britain 155
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Surrey 348
Royal Collection 103–4
Royal College of Art: ‘Female School’ 155
Royal Commissions 42, 46
Royal Geographical Society 196, 257
Royal Institution, Liverpool 196, 219
Royal Mersey Yacht Club 236
Royal Museum, Berlin 220
Royal Navy 327
Royal Society 196, 200, 257
Royal Society of Arts (previously Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce) 15
Royal Society of Painters and Etchers 120
Royal Society of Painters in Water-colours 156
Rubens, Peter Paul 104, 230, 309
Rudolph II, Holy Roman Emperor 27
Ruskin, Effie 245
Ruskin, John 24, 37, 45, 56–57, 82–83, 118, 234, 245, 264
and the Sheffield museum 39–40, 41, 227
Seven Lamps of Architecture 63
The Stones of Venice 63, 266, 370
‘The Two Paths’ (lecture) 36
Russell, Lord John 17
Saffron Walden Museum 200
St Mark’s Cathedral, Venice 63
Salisbury, Earls of 137
Salt, Henry 221
Salt, Titus 235
Saltaire, near Bradford 252
Salting, George 357, 366, 367
Sams, Joseph 220
Sargent, John Singer 262
Saturday Review 175
Sauvageot, Charles 60–61
Saxe-Weimar, Grand Duke of 78
Scharf, George 234
Schinkel, Karl Friedrich 238
Schools of Design 20–21, 46–47, 57, 60, 84, 88
Schopenhauer, Arthur 263
Schreiber, Colonel Charles (‘Charley’) 125–28, 144–45, 160, 215
Art Treasures Exhibition 234
ceramic collecting 158, 162, 166
death 183
family background and education 144
Fine Arts Club 156, 181
gourd-shaped bottle story 168–74
ill-health 127, 147, 168, 182–83
marries Charlotte 144–45
parliamentary role 169
personality 145
solo trip to Holland 168, 169–70
statistics of trips 165
tutors Charlotte’s son Ivor 144, 145
Schreiber, Lady Charlotte Elizabeth (née Bertie) 195, 223, 281, 308
achievements of 186
appearance 131–32
and Art Treasures Exhibition 234
at ‘van Galen’s’ 269
on Bock’s ‘sad story’ 280
childhood 133
a close friend of Franks 163
collecting interests 2, 128, 130–31, 141, 156–57, 158, 179–80, 373–74
death 185, 374
donation to South Kensington Museum 131, 183–85, 371
family background 132–33
and Fine Arts Club 156
first marriage to John Guest 135–40
forgery issue 298, 303
gourd-shaped bottle story 168–74, 177
helps other women collectors 162–63
ill-health 168
an intrepid traveller 2, 126–28
and John’s death 143–44
and Joseph Joel Duveen 147–48, 150, 152–53
late enthusiasm for collecting 132, 146, 153–54
and Layard’s excavations in Mesopotamia 222
Manchester Art Treasures Exhibition 229
and Marks 275
marries Charles Schreiber 144–45
and Mayer 196
meets and marries John Guest 134–35
respected as a collector 164, 177, 184
scholarship 177–80
statistics of trips 165
translates The Mabinogion 140–41
visits the Great Exhibition 142–43
Scott, Sir Walter 197, 205, 335
The Antiquary 191–92, 197
Second Afghan War (1878–80) 340
Second Opium War (1855–60) 321, 355
Second Republic (France) 56
Settled Land Act (1882) 29
Shangdu, Inner Mongolia 324
Shanghai 318–21, 350, 368
Shaw, Richard Norman 270–71, 278
Sheffield 36, 47, 218, 238
museum 39–40, 41, 227
Sickert, Walter 275
Sierra Leone 333–34
‘Silverpen’ see Meteyard, Elizabeth
Skinner, Arthur Banks 116, 117
Smith, Major Robert Murdoch 328
Smith, Admiral William Henry 257
Snyders, Frans: Dead Game and Fruit 103
Soane, Sir John 42, 377
Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (known as the Society of Arts; later Royal Society of Arts) 7, 15, 20, 23, 43
‘Ancient and Medieval Art’ exhibition (1850) 23
Society for the Encouragement of the Fine Arts 58
Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings 120
Society of Antiquaries 120, 155, 196–200, 204, 222, 302, 310
Society of Chemical Industry 199
Society of Dilettanti 43
Sotheby’s auctioneers 120, 174, 209, 221, 237, 307, 376
Soulages, Jules 231
South Kensington, London 7
South Kensington Museum (later Victoria and Albert Museum), London 2, 227, 356
Brompton Boilers 75, 238
and Bushell 340, 347, 348–49, 366–67
ceramics displays 158
Chinese displays 340, 346
Cole as first Director 18, 19–20
collecting Japanese
objects 340
Colonial and Indian Exhibition (1886) 338
described 9–10
forgery issue 297, 300, 311
Franks catalogues Japanese ceramics 327
identity of the collection 96
Indian material 339
international objects 324–25, 329–30, 331–32
loan exhibitions 46, 47
Magdala Treasure 223
range of objects bequeathed 372–73
relocation from Marlborough House to South Kensington 69–72
renamed (1899) 120
rivalry with the British Museum 149
Robinson as Curator 2, 12, 64–65, 67–68, 88, 98, 148
Robinson offers pieces from his collection 115–16, 120
role of 22, 68, 84–85, 231
Ruskin attacks 24
Schreiber collection 183–85
‘Special Exhibition of Works of Art of the Medieval, Renaissance, and more Recent Periods, on loan at the South Kensington Museum’ (1862) 10–12, 19, 24, 41, 47, 81–82
Catalogue of Chinese Objects 346
Speke Hall, Liverpool 284
Spencer, Herbert: Principles of Biology 337
Spenser, Earl 109
Sphinx, Giza 221
Spitzer, Frédéric 306
Staffe, Baroness 132
Stafford, Marquess of 43
Standard, The 249, 252
Stanley, Henry Morton 316
Stansted Park, West Sussex 174
Stanwick Park, Yorkshire 198
Stein, Sir Aurel 363
Sterling, Edward 251
Stoa, Athens 238
Stobart, Henry 220
Stone, Marcus 271
Stotesbury, Edward 288
Stowe House, Buckingham 29
Strutt, Joseph 252
Suez Canal 221
Sullivan, Sir Arthur 333
Sunderland 36
museum 40–41
‘Sunderland Library, The’ 29–30
Sunderland Museum and Library 33
Sung dynasty (960–1279) 342
Sweden: national gallery of art 57
Swinburne, Algernon 260
Tangiers, Morocco 131
Tarragona 163
Tate Gallery, London 53, 150
Temple Club, Strand, London 328–29
‘Ten Thousand Chinese Things’ exhibition (Hyde Park, London, 1841) 345
Teniers, David, the Younger 27
Tennyson, Alfred, Lord 23, 234
Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London 247
Thebes 221, 222
Thirty Years War (1614–48) 27
Thomas, Edward 251
Thompson, Sir Henry 82, 276–78, 280, 287
exhibition opening 278, 279
Thomson, John 345
Tiffany & Co. 283, 298
Times Literary Supplement 311
Times, The 20, 29, 104, 107, 112, 264, 276, 292, 293
Tippoo’s Tiger 338, 339
Tipu, Sultan of Mysore 338
Titian 53, 230
Townsend, Henry 333–34
Tradescant, John 225–26
Trafalgar, Battle of (1805) 250
Transactions of the Historical Society of Lancashire and Cheshire 248
Trapnell, Alfred 363
Treasury 90, 204, 231
Treaty of Peace and Amity (Treaty of Kanagawa) (1854) 332–33
Treck, Jan 268
Tunstall, Marmaduke 35
Turner, James Aspinall 232
Turner, J. M. W. 39, 44, 113, 230, 257
Uffington House, Lincolnshire 133, 134, 135
University of Oxford 335, 377
University of Vienna 117
Utrecht 147, 167, 171
Museum 163
Valentia, George Annesley, Viscount 220
Valladolid, Spain 127
Van Houtum (dealer in Amsterdam) 165
Van Huckelm, Monsieur 163
Vasters, Reinhold 304–5, 306
Veitch, John Gould 336
Venice 62–63
Verona 62
Versailles 54
Victoria, Kaiserin (Princess Vicky) 103–4, 293
Victoria, Queen 82, 103–4, 114, 119, 142, 154, 223, 226, 229, 234, 276, 315, 334, 340
Victoria and Albert Museum, London (previously South Kensington Museum) 66, 120, 372
and Bushell 371
English ceramics collection 162, 168–69
and Marks’ bequest 376
redesign of the galleries 373
value of gifts and bequests 372
and Vasters 304–5, 305
Vienna Museum of Applied Arts 77
Vienna School of Art History 117
Villanueva, Juan de 238
Von Bode, Wilhelm 103, 285, 290, 291–92, 294–95, 296, 308
Waagen, Gustav 32, 35–36, 44, 117, 118, 233–34, 236–37
Walmsley, Sir Joshua 190
Walpole, Horace 31, 43
Walters, William Thompson 357–60, 361, 362
War of Austrian Succession (1740–48) 185
Ward, Robert Plumer 134
Ward, William Hayes 283
Warrington, Cheshire 36
Wedderburne, Mr 210–12, 215
Wedderburne, Mrs 210
Wedgwood 169, 177–78, 193, 210–15, 224, 225, 236
showrooms 272
Wedgwood, Josiah 211, 213, 243
Wedgwood family 243
Weininger, Salomon 310
Wellington, Duke of 138, 234
Wertheimer, Asher 262–63
Whistler, James McNeill 257, 264, 267, 273, 278, 281, 282, 284–87, 333, 376
Art and Money; or, The Story of the Room 286
La Princesse du pays de la porcelaine 285
White, Gilbert 241
The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne 241
Whitemarsh Hall, Pennsylvania 288
Whitworth, Sir Joseph 115, 232
Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester 115, 232
Whitworth Institute, Manchester 115, 119
Wilde, Oscar 24, 267
Wilhelm II, Kaiser 293
Williams, Penry 229
Wilson, Arthur 288
Winchester 198
Woche, Die 295
Wölfflin, Heinrich 117–18
Wolverhampton 36
Women’s Trade Union League 176
Wordley, James 193–94
Wordley, Mary 241
Worshipful Company of London Fan Makers 185
Wortley Montagu, Edmund 220
Wortley Montagu, Lady Mary 220
Wren, Sir Christopher 66
Wright, Thomas 205
Wu Men market, Peking 322–23
Wunderkammer (cabinet of curiosities) 27, 39, 60, 70
Wycliffe Hall, near Bernard Castle, County Durham 35
Yuan dynasty (1271–1368) 267
Zoological Society, London 348
A view of one half of the South Court at the South Kensington Museum, filled with the packed cases of the 1862 loan exhibition. This wood engraving appeared in the Illustrated London News on 6 December 1862, towards the end of the show.
John Charles Robinson in middle age, probably around the time he left the South Kensington Museum. The oil painting is by J. J. Napier and is in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery.
This photograph of a small corner of Newton Manor shows part of Robinson’s extensive and varied collection in the domestic setting.
Charlotte Schreiber, around the time of her second marriage in 1855. The drawing is by George Frederic Watts, one of the most influential and renowned Victorian portrait painters.
Charles Schreiber possibly sat for this portrait on his election as MP for Cheltenham in 1865, ten years after his marriage to Charlotte. It is also by Watts.
The gourd-shaped bottle that tormented the Schreibers during 1873 and 1874.
Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s collection in the sitting room of 16 Cheyne Walk in 1882. Rossetti is reading to the poet a
nd critic Theodore Watts-Dunton.
The Peacock Room in the house of Frederick Richards Leyland, decorated by James Whistler in 1877. The photograph shows Whistler’s portrait of ‘La princesse du pays de la porcelaine’ and some of the blue-and-white collection assembled by Murray Marks.
Murray Marks in his London home. The photograph shows Rossetti’s characteristic portrait of Marks’ wife, as well as some choice pieces from Marks’ collection of blue-and-white on the mantlepiece.
Murray Marks’ distinctive trade card, designed as a result of a collaboration between Whistler, Rossetti and William Morris.
Joseph Mayer’s first portrait, painted around 1840 by William Daniels, shows Mayer at the heart of his growing collection.
A view of the ‘Mummy Room’ in Mayer’s Egyptian Museum in Liverpool, complete with stuffed crocodile.
Stephen Wootton Bushell’s visiting card with a portrait photograph taken shortly after his arrival in China in 1868.
The semi-ruined Bronze Pavilion at the Imperial Summer Palace in Peking. This picture was taken by the pioneering Scottish photographer, John Thomson, on a trip to the city in 1871–2, during which he almost certainly worked with Stephen Wootton Bushell to document historical sites. Bushell owned an album of Thomson’s photographs.
This pair of engravings by George du Maurier appeared in the Punch Almanack in December 1875. They present collectors as obsessive and strange, physically frail and emotionally incapable of interacting with family and friends around them.
The architect Aston Webb was chosen to create a new complex of buildings on the South Kensington site in 1891; it finally opened in June 1909. The intervening years saw Webb modify many of his ideas, moving towards the finished buildings we recognize today as the Victoria and Albert Museum.
An exterior view of the domed glass palace at Old Trafford, Manchester, that housed the Art Treasures Exhibition in 1857. This picture appeared in an illustrated weekly periodical, the Art-Treasures Examiner: A Pictorial, Critical and Historical Record of the Art-Treasures Exhibition, which was published especially for the duration of the exhibition.
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