The Capture of The Westmorland : An episode Of the Grand Tour


Fabulous exhibition at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford looking at the capture of a ship in the 18th century which was carrying tourists cargo back from their Grand Tours.

It was fascination on many levels. Firstly that it was a great piece of detective work/scholarship to have traced back the story of the ship and where the cargo had gone. The work which had gone into working out what had been in each crate and them trying to trace who had owned each one was stunning.

Secondly is shed light on what the Grand Tour was like, painting a picture of a number of your men through the objects and books they chose to send home.

Thirdly there were just some lovely objects including a some nice portraits by Battoni and a number of prints by Piranisi who I have encountered in Edinburgh the week before!

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