James Hughes Anderdon (1790–1879) was an English banker and art collector. He is now known for his large-scale projects in

extra-illustration Extra-illustration is the process whereby texts, normally in their published state, are customized by the incorporation of thematically linked prints, watercolors, and other visual materials. History Extra-illustration was a vibrant and widespread ...

Life

He was the second son of

John Proctor Anderdon John Proctor Anderdon (1760–1846) was an English merchant, banker and slave-owner, known also as an art collector. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1811. Life He was the son of Ferdinando Anderdon and his wife Mary Hobart, and gran ...

and his first wife, Anne Oliver. He became a partner in Bosanquet Anderdon & Co. with

James Whatman Bosanquet James Whatman Bosanquet (1804–1877) was an English banker and writer on biblical chronology. Life He was son of the banker Samuel Bosanquet III of Forest House, Essex, and Dingestow Court, Monmouthshire, (1768–1843) and his wife Laetitia Ph ...

, Samuel Bosanquet III, and Charles Franks. After the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833, Anderdon was paid a large sum of money for the emancipation of slaves on three estates in Nevis who he claimed he was entitled compensation for due to his banking activities. He retired from the bank in 1843.

Collector

Anderdon collected paintings, drawings, engravings, and autograph letters. He acquired English art at a sale in 1864 by Haskett Smith of

Goudhurst Goudhurst is a village and civil parish in the borough of Tunbridge Wells in Kent, England. It lies in the Weald, around south of Maidstone, on the crossroads of the A262 and B2079. The parish consists of three wards: Goudhurst, Kilndown and ...

(1813–1895), who was known for his "English School" collection. Anderdon bought works by John Crome, Richard Heighway, and

George Morland George Morland (26 June 176329 October 1804) was an English painter. His early work was influenced by Francis Wheatley, but after the 1790s he came into his own style. His best compositions focus on rustic scenes: farms and hunting; smugglers a ...

. His collection of engravings after portrait paintings was largely acquired at the 1852 sale of the estate of Thomas Haviland Burke. In 1868, he gave to the Print Room of the British Museum Haviland Burke's collection of James Barry's engravings and drawings.

Legacy

Most of Anderdon's pictures were put up for sale after his death in 1879. His collection of engraved portraits, mostly from the Haviland Burke sale, was left to Alexander Anderdon Weston, a cousin. Weston sold it in 1904.

Extra-illustration

Anderdon illustrated and annotated, in a form of "grangerisation", two distinct runs of past summer exhibition catalogues of the

Royal Academy The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its pur ...

. These went to the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

and the library of the British Academy. Their significance includes the fact that the annotations preserve content from sources that are no longer extant. Materials added include letters from artists to

John Taylor John Taylor, Johnny Taylor or similar may refer to: Academics *John Taylor (Oxford), Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University, 1486–1487 *John Taylor (classical scholar) (1704–1766), English classical scholar *John Taylor (English publisher) (178 ...

and

Rudolph Ackermann Rudolph Ackermann (20 April 1764 in Schneeberg, Electorate of Saxony – 30 March 1834 in Finchley, London) was an Anglo-German bookseller, inventor, lithographer, publisher and businessman. Biography He attended the Latin school in Stollberg ...

. Anderdon's motivations for his compilations are thought to be in part pedagogic, for the needs of art students. The first catalogue set, dating from 1769 to 1849 and bound in 13 volumes, went to the British Museum, along with a set of catalogues of the Society of Artists of Great Britain, dating from 1760 to 1791 and bound in nine volumes. The second catalogue set—which went to the Royal Academy—was based on the run of exhibition catalogues collected by the printmaker Edward Bell. Bell himself, it is thought, had already worked up an index to them. In 1833, Anderdon bought from Gérard Jacob-Kolb (fr:Gérard Jacob-Kolb) a 38-volume extra-illustrated compilation of 1823, based on the '' Biographie universelle, ancienne et moderne'' and other sources. Anderdon then developed it under the name ''Collectanea Biographica'', over most of the rest of his life, binding it in 1853 in 105 volumes. He left it to his half-sister Emma Mary, widow of Thomas Campbell Robertson, reportedly in 150 volumes. Her executors sold it in 1881 for a nominal price to the British Museum, where it is kept in the Keeper's Office of the Print Room. A further work of extra-illustration was based on the ''Anecdotes of painters who have resided or been born on England'' (1808) of Edward Edwards, itself a supplement to a work by

Horace Walpole Horatio Walpole (), 4th Earl of Orford (24 September 1717 – 2 March 1797), better known as Horace Walpole, was an English writer, art historian, man of letters, antiquarian, and Whigs (British political party), Whig politician. He had Strawb ...

. Again, it went to the British Museum.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Anderdon, James Hughes 1790 births 1879 deaths English bankers English art collectors