Alan Crookham, Research Centre Manager at the National Gallery, writes: Richard Ford (1796-1858) was an English writer, collector and amateur artist. In 1830 he visited Spain and over the next three years in the country he made over 500 drawings, one of the most complete pictorial records of Spanish cities and their monuments before the advent of photography. From 1836 Ford contributed a number of lengthy reviews to the Quarterly Review, several of them on Spanish subjects. This led the publisher John Murray to invite Ford to write A handbook for travellers in Spain (including an account of the pictures in the Prado that runs to over 17,000 words). When the book finally appeared in 1845, it was an immediate success and was followed a year later by Ford’s Gatherings from Spain.
This copy of the suppressed edition of A handbook for travellers in Spain was described by Quaritch as ‘probably the most important copy of the suppressed edition of Ford’s classic Handbook, of which barely a handful survive.’ The suppressed edition is indeed exceedingly rare and Quaritch’s assessment of this particular copy is based on the fact that it is dedicated to the other great mid-19th-century writer on Spain and Spanish art, William Stirling Maxwell. The volume includes an inscription from Ford to Stirling Maxwell in which he outlines the reasons for the suppression of the volume: ‘certain truths were too bluntly told and might cause offence to Spaniards and French’. A letter from Ford to Stirling Maxwell written at the time of its presentation, 10 May 1856, is tipped into the volume. The book is in good condition with only minor wear and some surface cracking along the spine; it is bound in Spanish leather to Ford’s specifications. The immediate provenance of the book comes from the library of Richard Ford’s biographer, Ian Robertson (1928-2020).
The purchase of this book complements several other acquisitions of library and archive material relating to Richard Ford that took place in 2020 and 2022. This particular volume has a special significance given its role in connecting the two principal mid-19th-century writers on Spain and Spanish art: Richard Ford and William Stirling Maxwell. It cements the Gallery’s position as the leading repository for material on Ford as well as enhancing our research activity in the field of Spanish art history. The purchase has further strengthened our position in this area and could encourage further deposits of similar library and archive material.
Founded by Parliament in 1824, the National Gallery is one of the finest art galleries in the world, housing the nation’s collection of historic European paintings, and it is also a pre-eminent centre for the research of paintings in the Western European tradition from the 13th to the early 20th century. Established in 2013, the National Gallery Research Centre, of which the Library and Archive form a part, supports the Gallery’s research strategy and ensures that our resources are made available to as wide an audience as possible. The suppressed edition of the Handbook is available on the National Gallery Library's website.
