Another Hamilton in Philadelphia

Linda August, Curator of Art and Artifacts and Visual Materials Cataloger

While recently Alexander Hamilton was all the rage in Philadelphia, another Hamilton also made a huge impact in the city: Sir William Hamilton.

In 1772, the Library Company purchased an influential work that would further the nation’s taste in neoclassical design. The book was Pierre d’Hancarville’s Collection of Etruscan, Greek, and Roman Antiquities from the Cabinet of Honble. Wm. Hamilton published in Naples from 1766 to 1767. It contained beautiful engravings printed in black on sepia ground and hand colored with vibrant oranges portraying urns and vases. A number of engravers and draughtsmen worked on the tome, including Giuseppe Bracci, Carmine Pignatari, Carlo Nolli, and Antoine Cardon. Colored plates were still a rare and expensive luxury, and the book made a big impact on Philadelphians. It was so valued that the December 1772 Library Company’s Directors’ Minutes list it as one of the items that required the permission and signature of two Directors in order for it to be checked out of the Library.

Collection of Etruscan, Greek, and Roman Antiquities from the Cabinet of Honble. Image 1

Collection of Etruscan, Greek, and Roman Antiquities from the Cabinet of Honble. Image 2

Collection of Etruscan, Greek, and Roman Antiquities from the Cabinet of Honble. Image 3

Pierre d’Hancarville, Collection of Etruscan, Greek, and Roman Antiquities from the Cabinet of Honble. Wm. Hamilton (Naples, 1766-7).

The book reproduced the collection of Sir William Hamilton (1730-1803), a British ambassador in the court of Naples from 1764 to1800. A passion for archaeology fueled his collecting of antiquities with many coming from Pompeii and Herculaneum. The publication depicting his vase collection inspired many artists and craftsmen. The enthusiasm for the fashionableness of the neoclassical extended further when English potter Josiah Wedgwood directly copied the designs in his own work.

Collection of Etruscan, Greek, and Roman Antiquities from the Cabinet of Honble. Image 4

Pierre d’Hancarville, Collection of Etruscan, Greek, and Roman Antiquities from the Cabinet of Honble. Wm. Hamilton (Naples, 1766-7).

Hamilton sold a significant portion of his collection to the British Museum. Neoclassical collector, Thomas Hope, also purchased some of the pieces. Hope, influenced by his travels to Egypt, Greece, and Turkey, furnished his London estate with antiquities, opening up galleries in his home to the public. He also issued a book of his collection, Household Furniture and Interior Design in 1807, which the Library Company purchased soon after its publication. We acquired many related books, including titles by Giovanni Piranesi, Bernard d’Montfaucon’s L’Antiquité Expliquée et Représentée en Figures, and James Stuart’s Antiquities of Athens to name a few. Library Company shareholders had a definite interest in the neoclassical.

Thomas Hope, Household Furniture and Interior Decoration (London, 1807).