The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1870-01-08

IAN.
Messrs. II. II. Leeds & Miner, of New
York, advertise in our columns to-day an
extraordinary Executrix sale of Oil Paint
ings, the most extensive and undoubtedly
most valuable collection ever owned in the
United States. 1t belongs to the estate of
the late Thomas Thompson, Esq, man
noted for his great wealth and many ee-
centricities.
The sale will commence at the Art Gale
ries of the Auctonecrs, Nos SIT and $40
Broadway, on the 18th of FEBRUARY, and will
be continued day and evening from day to
day and week to week, until the entire col
lection is disposed of. Catalogues of the
sale can be obtained by inclosing % cents
to the Auctioneers.
The New York Herald of Dec. 10th says:
1t will be remembered that Mr.. Thompson
died in New York in the spring of the
present year, and the singular boquests
made in his will were but another instance
of the pecularities which marked the man
through life.
He was a lover of the fine arts from his
youth, and at the time of the burning of
the fremont Temple, i'll Boston, in March,
1852, he lost by the contiagration fine-art
collection which had cost him upwards of
500, 600, and this, be it remembered, was
at time when money was gold and every
thing was cheap.
This misfortune for q time discouraged
him, but he could not overcome his tastes
and habits. In half dozen years his new
| collection was greater than the one he had
lost. Occupying an entire building, con-
sisting of more than dozen large rooms,
the pictures not only covered the walls, but
were positively kept in piles, so that it may
probably be truthfully said that no one ex-
cept the owner ever saw the entire collec-
ton, or anything approaching the whole of
it.
Some old citizens of Boston, presidents
of banks and insurance companies where
Mr.. Thompson did business and some lit
erary men, were OCCASIONALLY invited to pass
an afternoon or often an entire day among
these treasures, and were unanimous in the
expression that they could not begin to
look at them all. Portraits of citizens
and friends, notable personages copies of
the old masters, and many undoubted Or
iginals the best specimens of the English,
French, Italian, Dutch, and in fact every
school, have place in this remarkable col
-
dealer who did not at times have transac-
tons with this man. The poor artist found
him an appreciative and kindly critic, and
received a liberal price; his object then
was to aid the artist and advance the cause
of art. The professional dealer found him
a different man entirely. No one quicker
detected cheat or demanded more for his
money, but as it was always known that
with him market could be found at some
price, and the pay was cash i'll hand, he
was a customer not to be neglected. This
vast collection contains many paintings
bought for few hundred dollars which
had been previously sold for rs many thou
sands; there arc also many for which MIR.
Thompson paid several thousand dollars
each, and that are perhaps to-day worth
greatly more. No collection known is so
rich in rare and original pictures.
AS some men are misers Of money, this
lures; he loved them as his life, and he
kept them jealousy to himself. Probably
not hundred persons have ever seen
them and an application to him for that
purpose was almost invariably met with a
polite but studied evasion Of compliance
with the request.
Nearly ten years ago, Mr.. Thompson had
a misunderstanding with the assessors of
Boston, and conceiving himself to have
been injured by their action, resolved to
leave the city of his birth, never again to
return to it. This resolve he studiously
kept, and although residing for several
years in the immediate vicinity, and being
a large real estate owner in the city, he
never revisited it, ceased to communicate
with his former friends who resided there,
and apparently banished from his thoughts
the fact of its existence. From the day he
left the city he ceased to buy pictures
The artist lost good friend, and picture
vendors missed their best customer. The
entire collection was slowed away, and
from that day to this has been securely
guarded from every eye until the past
month. Mr.. j. Harvey Young, the we'll
known portrait-painter, and director of the
Fine Arts Exhibition of the Boston Athe-
neum, was employed by order of the execu
trix to examine and catalogue the collec
ton.
Mr.. Young is probably the only living
man who has seen all these pictures. They
are stored in a most unpromising street,
and in building which no one would sus-
pect of being such repository. Mr.
Young asserts that although he had in his
youth some knowledge of them, and had
himself contributed one or two efforts, yet
when he entered the building and found
such immense piles closely packed one
against another, tier after tier, and floor