Excerpt from A Selection From the Collection of Drawings by the Old Masters The present series of Plates was prepared to illustrate a complete Catalogue of the Collection of which they form a part, but the labour of preparing for the press a descriptive Catalogue of between two and three thousand drawings, according to the number that might be considered desirable to finally retain, induced the owner to, at least temporarily, abandon his intention. Not only was the labour itself sufficiently great, but it is doubtful if such a catalogue, however carefully compiled, could be of much use, seeing that 'without reproductions it is impossible for the student to judge if the name bestowed, whether by a former owner or the present, is justified. Altogether about 150 diherent Artists are represented here by 292 plates, giving a fair idea of a portion at least of the Collection. The drawings selected have been chosen for various reasons, not always for their intrinsic value, but occasionally as examples of masters not often met with. Some are interesting as studies for known pictures, others for their signatures, contemporary attributions, or for having been engraved, a few for their rarity: Cellini's authentic drawings can be counted on one's fingers. The drawing by Gerard Hoet proves that the accepted date of his birth must be wrong, as he would have been a boy of twelve at the date of this drawing; as to Thopas the dictionaries I happen to possess are altogether silent! About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.