Welsh Journals

that he admired Jones more as a writer than an artist but like Payne, he had actually seen few examples of the artist's oeuvre. Oppe considered that Jones's large oil painting of Lake Nemi (Private Collection) of 1782, which he had seen in an exhibition in Birmingham in 1946 was a 'cold picture' and that the Bay of Naples (National Museums & Galleries of Wales) also of 1782, and: several small pictures of Italian, Swiss and local scenes which are still at Pencerrig are equally empty and uninspired and it is impossible not to sympathise with George, Lord Herbert, later the 11th Earl of Pembroke, who visited Jones's studio in Rome in 1779 and described his work as 'so-so'.10 Yet Oppe was impressed by the lots which he viewed at Christie's prior to the 1954 sale." Indeed, so much so, that bumping into David Bell, the curator of the Glynn Vivian Art Gallery in Swansea, in Bond Street, Lon- don one warm afternoon in late June 1954, Oppe urged him to go and see them himself. Bell duly obliged and reported seeing 'some very interesting gouache drawings'.12 When he returned to Swansea he alerted his Com- mittee and recommended funds be made ready to make a bid. On 25 June 1954 wrote to Rollo Charles, Keeper of Art at the time at the National Mu- seum enquiring as to whether he was aware of the sale and these lots and to inform him of the Glynn Vivian's interest. Rollo Charles was already aware, having written on 17 June to Ralph Edwards at the V & A in his capacity as a member of the National Mu- seum's Art and Archaeology Committee asking 'could you investigate the Thomas Jones drawings which are being sold at Christie's on 2 July?'13 Ed- wards speedily confirmed that he would do so. Following his viewing Ed- wards reported to Charles who prepared an internal document in which he wrote 'he tells us that they are well worth trying for. There are three lots for which we should like to bid and he thinks that £ 50 should get us one of them. He hopes to be able to go and bid for us himself Each of the lots contained a number of works and eventually Edwards was instructed to bid on Lot 212 which contained two drawings described as showing Buildings in Naples and one which illustrated The Bay of Naples with the lighthouse, all dated 1782. He was informed that he could bid up to £ 40. Simultaneously in Swansea, David Bell at the Glynn Vivian decided to bid on Lots 212 and 213. He was given authority to go up to £ 20 on Lot 212 and £ 15 on Lot 213 and wrote to inform the National Gallery of his intentions. Meanwhile Megan Ellis, Keeper of Prints and Drawings at the