ANTIQUARIANISM.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

A Catalogue of the Portland Museum, Lately the Property of the Duchess Dowager of Portland, deceased: An uncommon auction catalogue of the immense collection assembled by Margaret Cavendish Bentick, second Duchess of Portland (1714-1784), a bluestocking, patron of Captain Cook, and a devotee of natural history. Many specimens had been collected during Cook's first voyage and personally presented to the Duchess by Solander and Banks in 1771. The collection of curiosities, shells, and other natural history specimens was considered "the finest in England and rivalled the best in Europe" (Dance, p. 73). Its curator, Rev. John Lightfoot (1735-1788), pioneered the scientific study of plants and fungi in Scotland.The 38-day sale consisted of 4,156 lots. A large portion was shells, corals, petrefactions, minerals, and eggs, many from New Zealand, Tahiti, Australia, and the South Seas. The section "Artificial Curiosities from America, China, and the newly-discovered Islands in the South Seas" began on day 13 and included lot 1372, "Elegant feather Arrays and Ruffs, one in a bamboo case, from Sandwich Islands"; lot 1376, "Three large and various small specimens of cloth, made from the bark of the cloth tree, some of them curiously stained in a variety of figures, from Otaheite, O-why-hee!, and other South Sea Islands"; lot 1377, "Two large pieces of fine bark cloth from the Society Islands". The penultimate lot on day 38 was the Roman cameo glass "Portland Vase", bought by the son of t

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