The Sun.
London, England, 1860-08-31 00:00:00

SOUTIi KENSING2 ON MUSEUM.

At the time of its publication, a short time since, we gave
a brief analysis of the report of the select committee ap-
pointed to inquire and report concerning the South Ken-
sington Museum. We now present our readers with the
document in its entirety :
Your committee, looking to the terms of the reference,
have limited their inquiries, as far as possible, to the South
Kensington Museum, and have not thought it their duty
to enter at any length upon the many large and important
subjects involved in the institutions for promoting science
and art—viz., the School of Mines, the Geological Museu'm
and Geological Survey, the Museum of Irish Industry,
the Royal Dublin Society, the Industrial Museum of Scot-
land, the 12 Navigation and Science Schools, and the 80
art schools, throughout the United Kingdom, all of which
are under the Science and Art Department. The general
superintendence of and pecuniary grants to these institu-
tions are administered by the Lord President of the Coun-
cil and the Vice-President of the Committee of Council on
Education, at South Kensington ; but these institutions
did and might exist quite independently of the South Ken-
sington Museum itself, which indeed was added to them as
late as 1857. The art schools, however, have direct rela-
tions with the museum, in respect of the collections and
books of art ; and your committee have accordingly inves-
tigated these relations.

1. Your committee proceeded, in the first instance, to
ascertain the nature, cost, and uses of the objects deposited
in the South Kensington Museum, and the reasons why
they had been placed in that locality. They find that the
collections consists of-1. Objects of ornamental art as ap-
plied to manufactures, with an art library ; 2. British pic-
tures, sculpture, and engravings ; Architectural examples;
4. Appliances for scholastic education ; 5. Materials for
building and construction ; 6. Substances used for food ;
7. Animal products ; 8. Models of patented inventions ; and
9. Reproductions by means of photography and casting.
2. It is on behalf of the ornamental art collections of va-
rious kinds that the state has made the principal outlay.
The system of purchase commenced as early as 1838, in ac-
cordance with the recommendation of a committee of the
House of Commons of 1835-6.
A sum of £lO,OOO was voted in 1840 to purchase examples
of art, for the schools of design; £5,000 was voted to buy
examples from the Exhibition of 1851; and in 1855 Parlia-
ment granted £20,000 to buy specimens from the Bernal
Collection. It appears that the State has expended during
the last 22 years on purchases of art specimens and books,
now in charge of the South Kensington 'Museum, nearly
£50,000. Mr. Cole produced an inventory which shows the
classes of objects which have been deposited in this depart-
ment of the museum. They illustrate various manufactures,
pottery, glass, metal-working, furniture, woven fabrics, and
the like; aid their date extends from the 12th century to
the present time. The committee of the House of Commons,
in 1836, recommended that "specimens from the era of the
revival of arts, everything iu short which exhibits in com-
bination the efforts of the artist and workman, should be
sought for in the formation of such institutions. They should
also contain the most approved modern specimens, foreign
as well as domestic." This recommendation has been car-
ried into effect by the South Kensington Museum.
The system by which purchases are made was fully de-
scribed by various witnesses. It is the duty of Mr. Robin-
son, the Superintendent of the Art Collections, to find out
and select suitable specimens, which after consultation with
the Inspector-General for Art, Mr. Redgrave, R.A., and
the Secretary and General Superintendent, Mr. Cole, are
submitted to the Lord President or the Vice-President.
If they aro approved, a minute is made either for an abso-
lute or conditional purchase. If the purchase be condi-
tional the object is exhibited in the museum, pursuant to a
minute passed by Mr. Henley, President of the Board of
Trade in 1852, and the public criticism is invited upon it.
All purchases are registered, and an inventory of them is
published and sold, which enables the public ,to know the
history, the date, and the price which has been paid for
each article. The objects are well arranged for public in-
struction as far as the limited space allows. Every article
is fully labelled in the museum, so that the visitors are not
obliged to refer to a catalogue. The collection seems to
have been economically made. Sir F. Scott, chairman of
the Birmingham School of Arts, and a collector himself,
considers that the objects would fetch from 7 to 10 per cent.
more than has been paid for them. Mr. Webb would "like
to give double the price paid for many things." Mr. Cole
produced a letter written by Mr. Hope, which stated " that
if Government is inclined to speculation it will realise a
handsome profit on the sums originally expended."
3. Your committee have investigated a complaint often
made against the South Kensington Museum and British
Museum, to the effect that the officers of these institu-
tions compete with each other at public sales. After exa •
mining Mr. Panizzi, the officers of the South Kensington
Museum, and Mr. Webb, the agent who buys for both in-
stitutions, your committee find not only that such competi-
tion has never occurred, but that a concerted action has been
always taken between both institutions, by the employment
of one buyer for the two to prevent any such competition.
The report appears to have originated from the fact, as
stated by Mr. Webb, that the British Museum and the
armour, the British Museum being in ignorance that the
Ordnance Department contemplated such a purchase for
the Tower of London.
4. Evidence was produced to your committee showing
the great extent to which the public are disposed to co-
operate with the state in assisting exhibition. Exclusive of
the Kohi-i-noor diamond, and the British pictures, the
liberality of the Queen and of private individuals, during
the last seven years, has given the public the benefit of
loans and gifts of ornamental art, which have been esti-
mated at a value exceeding £160,000.
5. The objects have not been merely exhibited in the
metropolis, but a system of circulation, first recommended
by the committee of 1836, has been matured, and very suc-
cessfully' carried into effect by means of a travelling museum,
the exhibition of which offers many advantages to schools
and museums in provincial towns.
Her Majesty has been pleased to allow objects of great
value and very fragile nature, such as Sevres porcelain, to
be circulated in this manner; and her example has been
followed by many private gentlemen, benefactors to the
museum. It is remarkable that, although the collection
has travelled through the United Kingdom,and been packed
and unpacked 56 times, not a single article has been lost or
broken.

Alderman Dunn, chairman of the Sheffield School of
Art ; Sir F. Scott, Mr. M. Campbell, chairman of the Stoke
(Potteries) School of Art; Mr. T. Fairbairn, chairman of
the late Art Treasures Exhibition at Manchester, and seve-
ral other witnesses, testified to the public importance of the
principle of circulation, by which the public collections are
not circumscribed to a merely metropolitan use, but are ren-
dered national. Your committee are glad to find that the
trustees of the National Gallery are willing to permit the
circulation of national pictures which will not be necessary
to the central collection.
The Fine Arts Committee of the House of Commons ex-
pressed, in 1841, an opinion that, "independently of the
beneficial and elevating influence of the fine arts upon a
people, every pecuniary outlay, either for the purpose of
forming or extending collections of works of art in this
country, has been directly instrumental in creating new
objects of industry and of enjoyment, and therefore in
adding at the same time to the wealth of the company."
Evidence, illustrated by actual specimens, was brought be-
fore your committee, which proved the soundness of these
views, and showed how by a judicious cultivation of the
taste of purchasers and manufacturers, and by their action
on each other, new branches of ornamental manufactures
had been created within the last few years.
The art collections when first formed were placed in
Somerset House, then transferred temporarily to Marl-
borough House, and were removed to South Kensington
when it became necessary to give up Marlborough House
for the residence of the Prince of Wales.
6. The collection of British pictures at South Kensington
was commenced by Mr. Sheepshanks, who in giving them
to the nation stipulated that his pictures must be kept
either in the immediate neighbourhood of Kensington in a
suitable building, or, failing this, at Cambridge. This gift
of some of the choicest pictures of the British school has
been valued at £52,595. It has lately been followed by a
gift of water colours by :Mrs. Ellison, valued at £2,996,
and other gifts to the nation are in prospect if Parliament
is disposed to find room to receive them. Mr. Sheepshanks
approved of tho building erected from Captain Fowke's do-
sign to receive his pictures, which are admirably displayed
in it, both by day and night. He also expressed his desire
that the local schools of art should derive some benefit from
his pictures, and some of the drawings of his collection
are now in circulation. The specimens of British sculpture
are valued at £7,130, and have been entirely contributed by
gift or loan. The collection of engravings and etchings has
also been formed by gift or loan, without expense of pur-
chase to the public.
7. Other British pictures are exhibited to the public at
South Kensington. They form part of the collections be-
longing to the trustees of the National Gallery, and consist
of the bequests of Messrs. Vernon, Turner, Jacob, Bell, and
others, together with the British pictures purchased with
the Angerstein Collection. They were first exhibited in
the basement of the National Gallery, in Trafalgar-square,
and were then removed to Marlborough House. When it
was necessary to give up possession of Marlborough House
to the Prince of Wales, it was proposed to fit up the old
riding-school at Charlton-terrace, and to remove the pic-
tures to this building, which was not fireproof. It was held
to be a better plan to erect fireproof buildings of a plain
and very economical character at South Kensington, and
this was done at a cost less than would have been incurred
by a provisional arrangement at Carlton-terrace, if the
value of the land on that site be taken into consideration.
The transfer of these pictures from Marlborough House to
South Kensington has been attended with increased facili-
ties to the public for seeing them ; they are now open to
view by day, every day in the week, and also on three even-
ings

8. The collections illustrating architecture are partly the
property of the public and partly belong to the Architec-
tural Museum Committee. The collections of that com-
mittee are valued at £3,000, and were brought from some
lofts in Cannon-row to commence a National Gallery of
Architecture. These collections, for want of room, are at
present aarraziged mud crowded. They aro Pi4cl‘ con-