The Seven Cartoons by Raphael in the South Kensington Museum

Quarter bound portfolio containing photographs of the Seven Cartoons by Raphael, then held by the south Kensington Museum (now the V&A), photographed by C Thurston Thompson with the permission of Her Majesty, Queen Victoria. Each photograph is approximately 7.25 inches by 4.75 inches and mounted on strong card. The portfolio also contains an introductory sheet identifying it as an Art Prize issued by the Science and Art Department with introductory notes on the cartoons. Also within the portfolio are two sheets of printed composition drawings dated 1820 which may or may not originally have been included. The portfolio is quarter bound in leather over paper-covered boards, with satin ties (boards worn, rubbed, chipped at edges, marked, soiled, but still strong. The rear satin tie is almost completely absent). There is a prize plate inside the front cover, indicating that the portfolio was awarded as an art prize for freehand drawing in 1887 but the name of the recipient has been scratched out. The paper flaps holding the leaves and images are tanned; some of the cartoon mountings are creased or worn at edges, but the photographs remain undamaged. The additional drawings are heavily rubbed and worn away at edges, and the introductory sheet is folded and curled along both longer edges. Charles Thurston Thompson was the first to photograph the cartoons in 1858. They are the original designs, worked by Raphael in 1513 as copies for Tapestry work, later to be hung in the Vatican. There were ten originally but three have been lost. Slim folio.