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PALMA DI CESNOLA, Alexander : Lawrence-Cesnola Collection. Cyprus Antiquities, excavated .1876-1879

Printed By W. Holmes and Son, London, 1881

Very good indeed in the original heavy red morocco gilt, letered A.P.C. on the spine and Cyprus Antiquities front board, extremities rubbed and hinges cracking externally but firm and tight, all edges gilt, the letterpress title mounted on thin card, margins chipped, the 60 albumen photographs in fine state, each with a text leaf mounted on the verso. Total size 375 x 290mm. An extremely rare publication, documenting what is arguably the most important collection of Cypriot antiquities ever assembled. The Cesnola Collection in The Metropolitan Museum of Art is the richest and most varied representation, outside Cyprus, of Cypriot antiquities. These works were purchased by the newly established Museum in the mid-1870s from General Luigi Palma di Cesnola, a Civil War cavalry officer who had amassed the objects while serving as the American consul on Cyprus. The Cesnola Collection was the earliest acquisition of Mediterranean antiquities by the Museum and constituted its primary display of archaeological material. In 1879 Cesnola became the Museum's first director, a position that he held until his death in 1904. Dating from about 2500 B.C. to about A.D. 300, these works rank among the finest examples of Cypriot art from the prehistoric, Geometric, Archaic, Classical, Hellenistic, and Roman periods. Among the objects are monumental sculpture; weapons, tools, and domestic utensils; vases, lamps, and ritual paraphernalia; dedicatory figurines; engraved sealstones and jewelry; and luxury objects. They represent every major medium worked in antiquity—stone, copper-based metal, clay, faience, glass, gold and silver, ivory, and semiprecious stones. These pieces testify to the quintessentially Cypriot amalgam of indigenous traditions and elements assimilated from the ancient Assyrians, Egyptians, Persians, Greeks, and Romans who, one after the other, controlled the island.

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