Joseph Mayer (1803–1886) was an English goldsmith, antiquary and collector.
Life
The son of Samuel Mayer, a tanner and currier, he was born at
Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, on 23 February 1803. At the age of 20 he settled in
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...
as a jeweller and goldsmith: successful in business, he was able to indulge his passion for collecting. In 1860 he devoted himself to the volunteer movement, and was captain of the Liverpool borough guard. He raised and clothed at his own expense a corps of volunteers at
Bebington
Bebington () is a town and unparished area within the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, in Merseyside, England. Historically part of Cheshire, it lies south of Liverpool, close to the River Mersey on the eastern side of the Wirral Peninsula. ...
, near
Birkenhead
Birkenhead (; cy, Penbedw) is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, Merseyside, England; historically, it was part of Cheshire until 1974. The town is on the Wirral Peninsula, along the south bank of the River Mersey, opposite Liver ...
, Cheshire, where he went to live in 1860.
['' Dictionary of National Biography'', Mayer, Joseph (1803–1886), antiquary and collector, by C. W. Sutton. Published 1894.]
Mayer retired from business in 1873, and died unmarried at Pennant House, Bebington, Cheshire, on 19 January 1886, aged 82. His private library, prints and manuscripts were dispersed by auction in 1887.
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]
Collector
Mayer acquired many thousands of drawings, engravings, and autograph letters relating to the history of art in England. He became the possessor of large portions of the collections of William Upcott
William Upcott (1779–1845) was an English librarian and antiquary.
Life
Born in Oxfordshire, he was the illegitimate son of Ozias Humphry by Delly Wickens, daughter of an Oxford shopkeeper, called Upcott from the maiden name of Humphry's mothe ...
and of Thomas Dodd, the print dealer and collector. Dodd was befriended in his latter days by Mayer, in whose house he died. In 1861 Mayer was deceived into purchasing some spurious papyri of the Gospel of Matthew
The Gospel of Matthew), or simply Matthew. It is most commonly abbreviated as "Matt." is the first book of the New Testament of the Bible and one of the three synoptic Gospels. It tells how Israel's Messiah, Jesus, comes to his people and form ...
and other scriptures, concocted by the forger Constantine Simonides Constantine Simonides (1820–1867) was a palaeographer and dealer of icons, known as a man of extensive learning, with significant knowledge of manuscripts and miraculous calligraphy. He was one of the most versatile forgers of the nineteenth centu ...
, who also induced him to publish them.[
]
One of Mayer's earliest studies was Greek coins, his cabinet of which he sold to the French government in 1844.[ He opened his own museum in Colquitt Street, Liverpool.] It ultimately reached great proportions, and embraced Egyptian antiquities, prehistoric and ethnographic curiosities, glass and pottery (especially Wedgwood ware; British and Anglo-Saxon antiquities, including W. H. Rolfe's collection and that of Saxon sepulchral remains made by Bryan Faussett
Bryan Faussett (30 October 1720 – 20 February 1776) was an English antiquary. Faussett formed a collection that was rich in Anglo-Saxon objects of personal adornment, such as pendants, brooches, beads and buckles. He discovered the Kingston ...
. For this collection Mayer printed in 1856 a catalogue and history, compiled for him by Charles Roach Smith
Charles Roach Smith (20 August 1807 – 2 August 1890), FSA, was an English antiquarian and amateur archaeologist who was elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London, and the London Numismatic Society. He was a founding member of ...
, entitled ''Inventorium Sepulchrale''. Other sections of the museum contained antique ivories, gems and rings, enamels, miniatures, and metalwork.
Patronage
A number of books were printed wholly or in part at Mayer's expense, among them being:
* ''Sprott's Chronicle'', edited by Dr. William Bell, 1851.
* ''Anglo-Saxon and Old English Vocabularies'', edited by Thomas Wright, 2 vols. 1857 and 1873; a second edition, edited by Richard Paul Wülcker, was brought out in 1884.
* ''Feudal Manuals of English History'', edited by Thomas Wright, 1872.
He assisted largely in the publication of Benjamin Thorpe
Benjamin Thorpe (1782 – 19 July 1870) was an English scholar of Anglo-Saxon literature.
Biography
In the early 1820s he worked as a banker in the House of Rothschild, in Paris. There he met Thomas Hodgkin, who treated him for tuberculosis.
A ...
's ''Diplomatarium Anglicum Ævi Saxonici'', 1865, and he supplied Eliza Meteyard
Eliza Meteyard (1816–1879) was an English writer. She was known for journalism, essays, novels, and biographies, particularly as an authority on Wedgwood pottery and its creator. She did living writing for periodicals.
Life
The daughter of Wi ...
with most of the materials for her ''Life of Wedgwood'' and ''Group of Englishmen''.
Works
Mayer was one of the founders of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, of which he was president from 1866 to 1869. He contributed the following among other papers to its ''Transactions'':
* ''The Mock Mayor at Newcastle-under-Lyme''.
* ''Roscoe and the Influence of his Writings on the Fine Arts''.
* ''Shotwick Church''.
* ''Liverpool Pottery''.
* ''The Arming of Levies in the Hundred of Wirral''.
* ''Addresses as President''.
* ''The Preparations of the County of Kent to resist the Spanish Armada''.
* ''On the Art of Pottery''.
In 1876, he printed a volume on ''Early Exhibitions of Art in Liverpool, with some Notes for a Memoir of George Stubbs''.
Legacy
His museum, valued at £80,000, was presented by Mayer to the corporation of Liverpool in 1867, and became part of the public museum in William Brown Street there. It is now at the World Museum
World Museum is a large museum in Liverpool, England which has extensive collections covering archaeology, ethnology and the natural and physical sciences. Special attractions include the Natural History Centre and a planetarium. Entry to the ...
.[ Objects include the Anglo-Saxon ]Kingston Brooch
The Kingston Brooch is the largest known Anglo-Saxon composite brooch, and is considered by scholars to be an outstanding example of the composite disc brooch style. The brooch, created in the seventh century, is now in the World Museum Liverpoo ...
. He had previously disposed of a collection of objects of art relating to the Bonaparte family, but at the death of the owner (Mr. Mather) it was bequeathed to the corporation.
In 1866, Mayer established a free library of twenty thousand volumes in Bebington
Bebington () is a town and unparished area within the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, in Merseyside, England. Historically part of Cheshire, it lies south of Liverpool, close to the River Mersey on the eastern side of the Wirral Peninsula. ...
, and endowed it. The library stood in public grounds (six acres), which he also dedicated to the use of the people. He founded two scholarships at the Newcastle-under-Lyme high school, and presented drawings and pictures.
A marble statue of Mayer, by Giovanni Fontana, was placed by the Liverpool corporation in St. George's Hall in September 1869. His portrait was presented by subscribers to the Bebington Free Library in 1872. Another portrait as a young man, painted by William Daniels, was in the Mayer Museum, Liverpool; it is now in the Walker Art Gallery
The Walker Art Gallery is an art gallery in Liverpool, which houses one of the largest art collections in England outside London. It is part of the National Museums Liverpool group.
History of the Gallery
The Walker Art Gallery's collection ...
.[liverpoolmuseums.org.uk, ''Joseph Mayer, William Daniels, 1843''.]
References
;Attribution
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mayer, Joseph
1803 births
1886 deaths
Businesspeople from Liverpool
English antiquarians
People from Newcastle-under-Lyme
English jewellers
English goldsmiths
19th-century English businesspeople
Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire