HOLBEIN, Hans.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

Imitations of Original Drawings by Hans Holbein First edition of this superlative folio, about which the leading authorities are in full agreement: "in every way a splendid book" (Abbey) and "this magnificent work is surely the finest early example of English colour printing" (Ray). This is a most handsome copy in contemporary red morocco."During his second stay in England (1532-43), Hans Holbein made a series of drawings of sitters connected with the court of Henry VIII that ranks among his finest achievements. Most of these were discovered as a group pasted into an album in a bureau at Kensington Palace by Queen Caroline in 1728, and the majority are now in the Royal Collection, Windsor" (Oliver et al, p. 168). The album had a chequered history, passing through several royal and noble hands - Charles I swapped it for a single painting by Raphael - before finding its way into the celebrated collection of Thomas Howard, 14th earl of Arundel, who "amassed what stands as the first major British art collection" (British Library). It then returned to royal ownership, a reunion that was recorded in Alexander Browne's Ars Pictoria (1675): "this book has been long a Wanderer, but is now most happily fallen into the King's Collection". It then lay undisturbed until Queen Caroline's discovery. Solicitous of artworks in the royal collections, she had them removed from their binding, individually framed, and hung in her country residence of Richmond Lodge.A native of Florence, Francesco

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