MUSEUM TREASURE

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 255, 24 July 1936, Page 10

MUSEUM TREASURE

Royal Folio of Rembrandts and Other Etchings

Forgotten in recent years because of the changes that have occurred in the staff of the Dominion Museum, a portfolio in which King George 111 kept some of hig etchings and engravings of masters of the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, has been brought to light during the changeover to the new museum building. Twelve of Rembrandt’s most famous works, including his well-known “Mill” and an impression of Amsterdam, are included in the portfolio. Other representatives of master etchers and engravers are contained in the volume. Albrecht Durer, an engraver and painter born at Nuremberg in 1471, was represented by a large engraving, “The Martyrdom of St. Catherine,” imprinted on the thick coarse paper with the pale brownish bistre ink peculiar io the times. This study and several <f Rembrandt's etchings were taken from the portfolio by the late Mr. J. McDonald. artist and assistant director of the Dominion Museum, before r he volume was placed in the Turnbull Library some time after 1919Mr. McDonald had the prints he re moved splaced in suitable mounts, and they were framed for eventual exhibi tion in the National Art Gallery which only now has become a reality. According to a pencil note on a page beneath a print after Raphael’s Madonnas, “When this scrap book was in the library of Windsor Castle, George IV, then Prince of Wales, spoilt those Madonnas of Raphael by pencil marking the eyes.” The portfolio contained SO etchings and engravings, including those removed by Mr. McDonald for the Art Gallery. The destination of this Royal portfolio remains to be decided It is the property of the Dom'nion Museum, and together with other valuable and perishable’articles was deposited in the Turnbull Library. It remains for the board to decide whether it shall be best exhibited in the new museum or the library. *