| Admin/Biog History | Between 1995-1998, a catalogue of the Ford collection was compiled and published. At the time, the collection was owned by Brinsley Ford (1908-1999), who also funded and oversaw the project. It consisted of the collections of his ancestor, Benjamin Booth (1732-1807), and his great-grandfather, Richard Ford (1796-1858), alongside his own.
The Ford catalogue was published across two issues of the Walpole Society journal, Herrmann, L. (ed.) (1998) The Ford collection I & II. The Walpole Society, 60. The Walpole Society: London. [a copy is available in the Paul Mellon Centre Library, see URL below]. There were initially plans to publish one of the issues in Apollo, although this did not transpire.
Various individuals worked on entries to the catalogue, including John Hayes who worked closely with Luke Herrmann and Ford on the planning and organisation of the project in his capacity as co-vice president of the Walpole Society, as well as contributing entries to the catalogue, focusing on works by Gainsborough and Rowlandson, among others. Further material relating to Hayes' involvement in the Ford collection can be found in the John Hayes Archive, Ref No: JTH/6/2 'Material related to the Ford collection catalogue'. |
| Description | This file contains correspondence between Ford and others at the early stages of compiling the Ford collection. It is mostly comprised of correspondence with the individual contributors to the catalogue entries, the majority of whom were selected by Ford, and include: Nicholas Penny, John Ingamells, Marjorie Trusted, Gillain Forrester and Luke Herrmann.
This file also includes correspondence concerning Ford's research into the provenance of items in his collection, mostly with gallery professionals, and correspondence concerning a number of visits hosted by Ford to his collection at his home, 14 Wyndham Place.
The correspondence was filed by Ford in an untitled folder, and alphabetised by surname of the recipient/sender. The material has been ordered chronologically in the cataloguing process. |