Collection of Spencer Compton, Second Marquess of Northampton, (1790-1851), Castle Ashby, Northamptonshire

Beazley called the collection of Greek vases ‘the richest private collection in Great Britain and one of the richest in the world’. (J.D. Beazley, ‘Notes in the Vases in Castle Ashby’, Papers of the British School at Rome, vol. 11, 1929, pp. 1-29). From 1820 to 1830 the Second Marquess lived in Italy, where he acquired most of his collection of over 160 ancient vases, including 52 black-figure amphorae, Eduard Gerhard was the first archaeologist to describe some of the vases in Northampton's collection, while on a visit to Rome: Vasen des Lord Northampton, Archäologische Zeitung, 4, Col. 340-342, Berlin, 1848. After the Marquess’s return to England, the vases were placed at one of his residences, Castle Ashby in Northamptonshire.

New Acquisitions | Spring 2020