Museum Worsleyanum . Or a Collection Antique Basso-Relievos, Bustos, Statues and Gems; with views of places in the Levant taken on the spot.

London, Shakespeare Press and S. Prowett, 1824, 2 vols, Folio (380 x 280 mm),Contemporary Levant Morocco, gilt borders with triple-fillets on covers, aeg,with 2 engraved frontispieces, vignettes and 150 engraved plates, I double page and folding and 11 double-page,

Second edition, printed in only 250 copies.

Magnificent catalogue of antique sculpture and gems, including views of the Parthenon and other Greek temples, the Pyramids and Haghia Sophia in Constantinople. Sir Richard Worsley (1751-1805) was a politician and art collector who travelled widely in Greece and Asia Minor in 1785-87 and was later British Resident at Venice 1794-97. He was the first British traveller to transport works of art from Greece back to England, where he displayed his collection of antiquities at his house Appuldurcombe in the Isle of Wight.

“Having wintered in Rome, [Worsley] left the city in February 1785 for an extensive journey in the Levant, accompanied by Willey Reveley as his draughtsman. He reached Athens in May 1785, then travelled extensively in the Greek interior, going on to Rhodes, Cairo, and Constantinople. In 1786 he made an excursion to Sigeum and Troy, and also visited the Crimea. He returned to Rome in 1787, and went home during 1788. During his travels Worsley made a remarkable collection of statues, reliefs, and gems, which he arranged at his house at Appuldurcombe. It included the most important collection of Greek marbles yet seen in England. In 1798 he issued the first part (dated 1794) of the ‘Museum Worsleianum’, a sumptuous illustrated description of his collection. The cost of part one, exclusive of binding, was a staggering £2,887 4s. Part two came out in 1802… It indicates a sensitive, informed man of taste, as much interested in the history and provenance of a work as in its aesthetic qualities” (ODNB).