The Catalogue, of the Waddestion Bequest.. By C. H. Read.
(Published by order of the Trustees of the British Museum.) —This elaborately illustrated book with its numbers of photo- gravures shows us the richness, variety, and splendour of the collection left to the nation by the late Baron Ferdinand Roths- child. Whether the thing be a Greek bronze medallion, a German Renaissance jewel, an Italian door-knocker, or a Limoges enamel, it is always the same wonderful excellence that we find. There is, too, a delightful absence of tho merely dull collectors' pieces, t hose things so tiresome to the artistic, and beloved by the expert,— things which one is asked to admire not because they are beauti- ful, but because they are interesting, such as battle pictures and French periwig furniture. In looking at the beautiful things here reproduced we cannot but feel grateful to the man who had the taste to collect these things and the generosity to leave them to the nation.