ABSTRACT
Flat Musick, from Amboyna, very rare - Rum. 37. 2. [Harpulina arausiaca Lightfoot] [Dillon £5 5s.]
Lot 4024:-A most beautiful and perfect specimen of Vol uta Gambaroonica, an undescribed species, from Gambaroon, in Persia, of which there is only one other known [Aulicina nivosa Lamarck] [Dillon £23 2s.]
Lot 4025:- TURBO PULCHER, or the BEAUTY, a marine turret-shaped Shell, smooth, of a white ground, with six broad undulated pink stripes, extremely beautiful, unique [Phasianella australis Gmelin]
Orange Admiral, rich in colour, from Amboyna - extremely scarce [Conus aurisiacus L.] [Dillon £18 7s. 6d.]
Source
THE interest, which has always been taken by men of taste and learning in that singular example of ancient art, now known as the Portland Vase, and which has been long fostered by its exhibition, through the favour of its noble owner, in a prominent position amidst the national collections, has been recently more deeply excited by the wanton attack which threatened its total annihilation.5 From that lamentable condition we are happy to state it is now restored. Perhaps no broken vessel was ever before put together that had been shattered into so many pieces. This of course could never have been affected with certainty, had not the many models and drawings which have been made of it formed a decisive record of all its features in their proper position. Its reconstruction thus became merely a long and laborious puzzle; but the skilful ingenuity with which the task has been accomplished by Mr. Doubleday of the British Museum, and the cleverness with which he has in a great degree contrived to render imperceptible the innumerable lines of conjunction, would be sufficient to establish his immortality as the prince of restorers, and could not have been surpassed by the most experienced of the antiquaries of Italy. Most ordinary spectators, indeed, whose curiosity may have been raised on the matter, will perhaps be disappointed that they can detect so few traces of
The greatest curiosity of the Portland Vase perhaps, consists in its material, which for some time divided the opinions of connoisseurs as much as its designs. Many of the best of them believed that it was a natural stone, wrought within, as well as without, by the tool of the workman. Breval, in 1738, called it 'the famous vase of Chalcedony'; Bartoli termed it a sardonyx, De la Chausse an agate, and Montfaucon a precious stone. Count Caylus, better informed, referred to it as being of glass; and Wickelman speaks of it more particularly at the highest of the ancient works in that material.
