Category Archives: Antiquaries

A print by Cosway

Douce was a friend and executor of the painter Richard Cosway (1742-1821). Many works by him and by his wife Maria can be found among Douce’s prints and drawings -this nymph carrying Cupid on her shoulders is a good example: … Continue reading

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Douce’s dream

In a previous post, I referred to Douce’s accounts of his dreams in his Book of Coincidences. In an undated entry probably written in 1817, Douce explained: I had a strange dream about eating a cross-bow as a broiled fish. … Continue reading

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Amateur drawings

Among Douce’s drawings in the Ashmolean there are many by amateurs like Francis Cohen (1788-1861). In 1823, Cohen changed his name to Palgrave and married one of Dawson Turner’s daughters, Elizabeth. Douce and Cohen became close friends and they met … Continue reading

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Interior design

The drawing below was made by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, an artist renown, among many other things, for getting his props right: Like other history painters working in the early decades of the nineteenth century, Ingres would have appreciated Douce’s … Continue reading

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We are five

I have just started cataloguing Douce’s prints of fools -the engraving below belongs to the popular type depicting a group of foolish figures that numbers one fewer than the title, so that the viewer makes up the total: On the … Continue reading

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At Rochester Cathedral

Douce counted among his friends not only Thomas Stothard (1755-1834), but also two of his sons, Charles Alfred and Robert. Many works by the former, who was historical draughtsman to the Society of Antiquaries, are kept with Douce’s topographical prints. … Continue reading

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Douce’s Annunciation

When told of Douce’s acquisition of a View of Clifton Ferry with a Holiday Party and Bristol Fair by Rolinda Sharples (1793-1838), his friend George Cumberland wrote that they had been ‘sold at an auction to Mr Douce who knows nothing … Continue reading

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A festival book

Two weeks after my post on tournaments, I have come across a few more prints on this subject, kept in a different location. Among Douce’s ‘miscellaneous woodcuts’, there are five hand-coloured illustrations taken from Ordenliche Beschreybung der Fürstlichen Hochzeyt…  (Augsburg, 1568) … Continue reading

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Douce’s evening readings

In the evening of 26 September 1830, Douce was reading Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe. Scott was a friend of Douce: in 1804, he had sent him a  copy of his edition of the medieval romance Sir Tristrem (now in the Bodleian). … Continue reading

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