An 18th century Collection of Grand Tour fan views and 19th Century British drawings and watercolours
Roman views, Castel Sant Angelo, Roman Forum, The Temple of Concorde, Temple of Vespasian and Titus, Forum of Nerva with the Colonacce, Pantheon, Temple of Hercules Victor,

A bound red Morroco red leather and gilt tooled album containing 18/19th century gouache, watercolours and drawings to include:
Ten Grand Tour Roman views depicting:

Castel Sant Angelo
Roman Forum
The Temple of Concorde
Tomb of Caecilia Meetella
Temple of Vespasian and Titus
Forum of Nerva with the Colonacce
Pantheon
Temple of Hercules Victor
Arch of Titus, Column of Marcus Arurelius
The Great Cascade at Tivoli
The Falls at Terni

each gouache, surrounded by elaborate boarders of foliage and decorative scenes
each 14 x 35 cm. (5 1/2 x 13 3/4 in.) (fan shape, not laid onto a fan) (10)

Together with a collection of further drawings and watercolours.

Bound album

Sieveking Family Collection

The Grand Tour became a popular educational experience principally throughout the 17th-early 18th Century, undertaken by upper-class young men. The trip consisted of a journey through Europe, with Italy as a key destination. By the mid-18th Century, The Grand Tour was considered to be a standard feature of aristocratic education in Europe for the higher nobility. Edward Gibbon (1737-1794) an English essayist, historian and politician, declared that 'According to the law of custom, and perhaps of reason, foreign travel completes the education of an English gentleman' (1).

Fan designs such as these would have been made throughout Italy for the tourist trade. Some would have been returned to Britain attached to sticks, whilst others such as these were sent home unmounted (2).

Notes:

(1) E. Chaney, "Gibbon, Beckford and the Interpretation of Dreams, Waking Thoughts and Incidents", The Beckford Society Annual Lectures (London, 2004), pp. 25–50.

(2) Unfolding Pictures: Fans in the Royal Collection 2005