AEDES WALPOLIANAE: OR, A DESCRIPTION OF THE COLLECTION OF PICTURES AT HOUGHTON-HALL IN NORFOLK

WALPOLE, Horace.  AEDES WALPOLIANAE: OR, A DESCRIPTION OF THE COLLECTION OF PICTURES AT HOUGHTON-HALL IN NORFOLK                         

London: 1752. 4to. Contemporary quarter-calf. 2 frontispieces, xxxv, (i), 143 pages, 4 folding plates. Second edition. [Sowerby, 4238].

This greatly expanded description of the painting collection of Robert Walpole (1676-1745) was owned by Thomas Jefferson.  During Walpole's lifetime, the collection was mostly kept in his London houses: one hundred and forty-nine paintings in Downing Street, sixty-four at Grosvenor Street, and seventy-eight in Walpole's suburban retreat in Chelsea.  While the collections were not open to the public, they were available to connoisseurs and artists by request.  Foreigners were particularly encouraged to view them as an example of the newly developing English taste.  Walpole's collection was sold en bloc after his death to Catherine the Great of Russia.  A poem by Whaley, "A Journey to Houghton," is included.  Very good.

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