52pp. Numerous black and white illustrations. Illustrated card covers (very slightly scuffed at spine ends). Internally neat, clean, bright and tight. Francis Seymour Conway, the 3rd Marquess of Hertford, was not a likeable man. He was a wayward son, a wretched husband, a feckless Irish Landlord, a Tory autocrat hostile to reform and, according to the self-righteous Greville, 'of undisguised debauchery'. His one redeeming feature was the sensibility he exercised in the sale rooms of London and Paris in the early years of the 19th century, building collection of works of art, furniture and crafted porcelain which began one of the most famous family collections ever, part of which was bequeathed to the nation in 1897 as the Wallace Collection. This is the story of his collection-building. Slim 12mo.
