Footnotes

Provenance
Private Collection, USA

The present portrait has been traditionally attributed to Jonathan Richardson and Sloane is known later to have sat for the artist when he was older, in 1730 (the portrait now belongs to the University of Oxford). Further likenesses of the great connoisseur were made by Sir Godfrey Kneller (engraved), Thomas Murray, Stephen Slaughter and Attributed to John Vanderbank.

A physician by trade, Sir Hans Sloane (1660-1753) is celebrated today foremost as a prolific collector of all kinds of objects from around the world. By his death in 1753 he had amassed over 71,000 items. Largely misunderstood by his contemporaries he can be regarded as something of a visionary. After being appointed a trustee for Sloane's collection Horace Walpole (himself a notable collector) characterised his trust as 'guardianship of embryos and cockle-shells'. Equally sceptical was Sir Charles Hanbury Williams, who, when asked by Sloane (whose medical care had saved his life) to send him any curiosities he came across during his travels, ended his facetious reply with the words:

'This my wish, it is my glory,
To furnish your nicknackatory.'

The ever spiteful Lord Hervey, furthermore, in one of the pieces he wrote to amuse Queen Caroline, complimented her as follows:

'Who every Sunday suffers stupid Sloane
To preach on a dried fly or Hampstead stone,
To show such wonders as were never seen,
And give accounts of what have never been.'

Yet, by way of vindication the Sloane Collection was subsequently purchased by the nation to be joined with the King's and Cotton Libraries, The Harleain Manuscripts together with other major collections and by an Act of Parliament in June 1753 the sum of £100,000 was ordered to be raised by lottery, and a number of 'Trustees for the British Museum' appointed, consisting of great officers of State, representatives of the families of Sloane, Cotton, Harley, Townley, Elgin and Knight, a nominee of the King, and 15 elected members. For housing these collections Montague House was acquired for £10,000. The British Museum was opened to the public on 15 January, 1759, 6 years after Sloane's death. While the Museum on its foundation was of value mostly to men of science, the accessions which it received rapidly made it a centre for all aspects of learning. The Trust was charged with the duty of ensuring that Sir Hans Sloane's and the accompanying collections might be preserved and maintained, not only for the inspection and entertainment of the learned and curious, but for the general use and benefit of the public to all posterity. Today the global and unquestioned reputation of the British Museum more than compensates for the ridicule Sloane received from his contemporaries for his 'nicknackatory'.