Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1750-1751 / (Creation)
Level of description
File
Extent and medium
4 ff. Guarded and filed at NLW.
Context area
Name of creator
Biographical history
Archival history
Admiral Smith was the illegitimate son of Sir Thomas Lyttelton (1688-1751) and the letters remained in the possession of the Lyttelton family, Viscounts Cobham, until the sale of the family archive by the 11th Viscount in the Sotheby's auction of 1978.
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Sotheby's; London; Purchased at auction, lot 79; 12 December 1978
Content and structure area
Scope and content
A holograph letter, 8 July 1751, from the painter Richard Wilson, Venice, to [Admiral] Thomas Smith, London, touching on Wilson's studies of Titian, Francesco Zuccarelli, his portrait of the German ambassador, and various acquaintances in Venice (ff. 3-4). Also included is a letter, 7 November 1750, from the painter's sister E[lizabeth] Wilson, Bristol, to Smith, apparently on behalf of her brother, concerning a dispute with a Mr Harris arising from 'the pictures of the two Miss Jenkins' (ff. 1-2).
Both letters were first published in Maud M. Wyndham, Chronicles of the Eighteenth Century: Founded on the Correspondence of Sir Thomas Lyttelton and his Family, 2 vols (London, 1924), II, 66-69; they have subsequently seen print in Adrian Bury, Richard Wilson, R.A.: The Grand Classic (Leigh-on-Sea, 1947), pp. 17-18, W. G. Constable, Richard Wilson (London, 1953), pp. 19-22, and elsewhere. This is one of only three holograph Richard Wilson letters known to exist (see Constable, pp. 1, 13).
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling
Accruals
System of arrangement
Arranged chronologically at NLW.
Conditions of access and use area
Conditions governing access
Conditions governing reproduction
Usual copyright laws apply.
Language of material
Script of material
Language and script notes
English.
Physical characteristics and technical requirements
Finding aids
Allied materials area
Existence and location of originals
Existence and location of copies
Related units of description
Publication note
Maud M. Wyndham, Chronicles of the Eighteenth Century: Founded on the Correspondence of Sir Thomas Lyttelton and his Family, 2 vols (London, 1924), II.
Publication note
Adrian Bury, Richard Wilson, R.A.: The Grand Classic (Leigh-on-Sea, 1947)
Publication note
W. G. Constable, Richard Wilson (London, 1953)
Notes area
Note
Title based on contents.
Note
Pencil annotations, in a twentieth-century hand, are on ff. 1 and 3.
Note
Preferred citation: NLW MS 15478C.
Alternative identifier(s)
Virtua system control number
Access points
Subject access points
Place access points
Name access points
- Titian, approximately 1488-1576. (Subject)
- Zuccarelli, Francesco, 1702-1788. (Subject)
- Wilson, Richard, 1713-1782 -- Correspondence. (Subject)
- Smith, Thomas, -1762 -- Correspondence. (Subject)
- Wilson, E. (Elizabeth) (Subject)
- Smith, Thomas, -1762. (Subject)
Genre access points
Description control area
Description identifier
Institution identifier
Rules and/or conventions used
Description follows NLW guidelines based on ISAD(G) 2nd ed.; AACR2; and LCSH.
Status
Level of detail
Dates of creation revision deletion
November 2007 and May 2014.
Language(s)
- English
Script(s)
Sources
Archivist's note
Description compiled by Bethan Ifans and revised by Rhys Morgan Jones;