Collectors’ Marks

In the case of this drawing, even without Witt ’s original card it is possible to identify Prince Wladimir as an owner of the drawing at one point in time. By closely examining the drawing itself, his collector’s mark can be seen in the bottom left hand corner of the recto, a small crown-like stamp in black ink.

G.B. Piazzetta, Head of a youth and of a bearded man, black & white chalk on paper, 34 cm x 27.5 cm

These collectors’ marks – distinctive stamps or handwritten marks of initials, symbols, crests or pictures in miniature – can be identified by Fritz Lugt’s Les marques de collections de dessins & d'estampes (published in 1921, and supplement in 1956). Marks are reproduced alongside a short biography of the collector and the dates and locations of the sales of their collections. Each mark is given a number - Prince Wladimir’s here is 2602d; Witt’s own (which appears on the on the verso of this drawing) is 2228b. Marks can often be faked so a close examination and comparison with others is necessary. 

Case Study: Parmigianino’s Rustic Scene

Many of Witt’s cards and the Courtauld’s own existing records do not offer information relating to all the collectors’ marks on a drawing. One example with an outstanding provenance is this small rustic scene by Parmigianino. The ‘S’ mark on the lower right was correctly recognised as that of George John, 2nd Earl Spencer (1758-1834, Lugt 1530), but the story offered by physical evidence extends far beyond this one collector. Many of the drawings of George John, 2nd Earl Spencer came by descent from his father, John, 1st Earl Spencer (1734-1783), and he may be noted as a potential owner of the drawing at one time.


Parmigianino (1503-1540),  Rustic scene, pen & light brown ink, light brown watercolour on paper, 10.1 cm x 12.4 cm.

A note in the drawing’s file at the Institute suggests that the first known owner was Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel (1585-1646), as the drawing was engraved by Nicholas Lanier (1588-1666), apparently when in Arundel's collection. Further research is needed to confirm this however, and find a copy of the engraving.

The provenances of many drawings can be discovered thorough how the drawings were collected and stored by their owners. Mounts and inscriptions can identify that the drawing was part of a collection as much as the collectors’ marks themselves. Evidence of this drawing’s ownership may be revealed through the traces of gold that are apparent on the edges. After being examined by Bernadette Py from the Musée du Louvre in 2000, she believes that they point towards the drawing having been part of the extensive collection of the banker Everhard Jabach (1610-1695), the majority of whose drawings were acquired by Louis XIV in 1671, and thus later passed to the Louvre. A chiaroscuro engraving by Anton Maria Zanetti (1680-1767), collector and librarian of San Marco in Venice suggests that this drawing was one of the fifty or so by Parmigianino in his own collection that he engraved (Bartsch, Vol. XII, pp.185/6, no. 63).

One small mark on the verso displaying the initials ‘EG’ can be identified as that of Emile Galichon (1829-1875, Lugt 856), a noted collector, art historian and editor of the Gazette des Beaux-Arts. The larger mark of his brother – also a noted collector – Louis Galichon (1829-1893, Lugt 1060) is visible through the paper. Undoubtedly one of the largest and most ornate collectors’ marks, it is reproduced below. Both brothers were born in the same year, yet Emile died eighteen years before his brother, leading to the possibility that the drawing passed to Louis upon the death of Emile.

Collector’s mark of Louis Galichon. blue ink on paper
(taken from the verso of the Spencer Museum's impression of Lucas van Leyden's engraving, The Return of the Prodigal Son, at the University of Kansas; see http://www2.ku.edu/~sma/conn/connmrk.htm )

Lugt tells us that the sale of Louis’s drawings collection was conducted by Danlos in Paris from the 4th to the 9th of March 1895. We know that when Witt bought the drawing from Sotheby's on 10 April 1933, as lot no. 22, it came from the collection of the engraver John Postle Heseltine (1843-1929). Although it is possible that Hestletine bought the drawing from Louis Galichon’s sale at Danlos, the provenances are incomplete without further checks, which will form the second campaign of work on the Witt’s drawings.

So far, the provenance project comprises nine eminent collectors. There may, or may not, be owners missing who have yet to be traced through the second campaign. The list of owners appears thus: 

Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel (1585-1646)
Everhard Jabach (1610-1695)
Anton Maria Zanetti (1680-1767)
John, 1st Earl Spencer (England 1734-1783)
George John, 2nd Earl Spencer (1758-1834)
Emile Galichon (1829-1875)
Louis Galichon (1829-1893)
John Postle Heseltine (1843-1929)
Sir Robert Witt (1872-1952)

To complete the provenance, it is necessary to confirm who bought a drawing from a particular sale. The online version of another work of Lugt’s, his Répertoire des Catalogues de Ventes can be searched for further information for sales in Europe 1600-1925 ( http://lugt.idcpublishers.info/ ). Inputting the details of Galichon’s sale, various locations where the catalogue can be found are revealed. Any of these can be scoured for lot number of the Parmigianino drawing, matching the dimensions, medium, and visual description, but an annotated version with details of who bought the drawing is necessary to complete the provenance. In this case, such catalogues exist in Germany and the Netherlands, but many others lay closer to hand in the British Museum, National Art Library or at individual auction houses.  

Collating Information

The spreadsheet allows other searches, such as those for a particular collector or sale. Using this tool, it is interesting to note for example that the collection comprises 34 drawings formerly owned by the artist and collector Sir Joshua Reynolds, or that Witt bought 38 drawings from the Sotheby’s sale on the 2nd February 1944.

Typewriter Dating

Although some of Witt’s records indicate the date that the drawing was bought, most unfortunately do not. Dr Fischer’s Research Assistant, Jesper Svenningsen, studied the form of the typewritten letters on the original index cards in order to suggest a chronology of six different typewriters, and therefore a date of acquisition. The following is an excerpt taken from Jesper’s report:

As Witt kept on trading and selling drawings from his collection and reassigning the inventory numbers which had thereby become available, there is no straightforward connection between the inventory number and the date of acquisition. However, we can be fairly sure that Witt registered his drawings immediately after the acquisition, so a drawing may have a lower inventory number than expected (if a number is being reassigned), but rarely a higher number than expected. In rare cases (such as RW.1923) the drawing seems to have been given a new number and the cut-out from the sale catalogue moved to the new index card.

As mentioned the approximate date of acquisition can be worked out by the font of the type writer used combined with a knowledge of the way Witt organized his collection. The same typewriters are used on many of the Witt prints (and presumably his letters). I have tried to work out the differences between the different type faces and sort out the chronology, but more work needs to be done on this.

1st type writer (used c. 1921-1925)
The 0 is small
The 2 is plain
The 3 is flat-topped and leans slightly to the right
The 4 is open and curved
The 5 extends below the line
The 8 is flat-topped and asymmetrical
The 9 extends below the line

This type writer was used for the original sequence 1-2099, of which the (original) sequence 1-1812 is distinguished by a “.” following the inventory number. Drawings incorporated into this sequence later lacks this feature and are typed with different machines. The latest dated purchase within this sequence is June 1925, thus overlapping slightly with type 3.
Initially Witt seems to have bought mainly from Parson and Meatyard, who specialized in inexpensive drawings. It seems that by 1923 Witt had already bought his first 1800 drawings, most of which were later re-sold.

2nd type writer (used c. 1925)
This is the most ornamental of the type faces (see RW.1999), with italic fonts. It occurs within the sequence 1961-2070. It can easily be mistaken for type 4, but
The 3 is round
The 9 is small and identical to the 6
The M collides with other letter

3rd type writer (used c. 1925-1943, also 1945)
The 1 is relatively small
The 2 is plain
The 3 is large and rounded (RW.232, bought 1926)
The 4 is closed without a ground line
The 5 has a upstroke upper right
The 7 has a “tail” upper left
The 8 is tall and rounder   

This machine was perhaps first used on RW.2074 purchased in May 1925 (at the same time as RW.2077 which is typed with the first machine). The type is used in the sequence c. 2074-after 2248.”

Current status and future progress

Using collectors’ marks, inscriptions, mounts, Witt’s index cards and information from the Courtauld’s object files, the known provenances of all but 44 of the 743 Italian drawings in the Witt collection have been recorded in an Excel spreadsheet. The next campaign of work will involve following up the details recorded thus far, using sale catalogues and other research in various libraries. Sales and names that need further research have been highlighted in red, so that many entries currently look like this:

Work has begun on filling in the details of the relevant annotated catalogues in London, as can be seen above, where a relevant annotated catalogue (‘cat’) exists in the British Museum (‘BM’) and National Art Library (‘V&A’). From these annotated catalogues it should be possible to find the lot numbers and purchasers at a particular sale. Once the locations of all the catalogues have been added in, the spreadsheet can be used to create a list of the provenances that need to be researched at a particular institution.

Further research on the collection will prove valuable and interesting in many ways. It will not only provide information pertinent to the object’s reception, but will also reveal the tastes, methods of collecting, and lives of the people attached to it throughout its long history.

© Thea Bowden 2006