A Letter From
America
#3
Paul Mellon's Legacy
From
the Antiquarian Book Review
01/14/02
Upperville
,
Va.
The late Paul Mellon, who died in 1999, was one of the great
book collectors of the 20th century. Mellon’s career as a patron of
the fine arts, especially his immense benefactions to the National Gallery of
Art and the Yale Center for British Art, largely overshadowed his achievements
as a bibliophile; and in England, no doubt, he will most be remembered as a
one-man swarm of locusts who removed vast amounts of British art to American
shores. But Mellon deserves also to be remembered as a great bibliophile and
patron of libraries. He vigorously supported rare book collections throughout
his life, and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, created by Mellon and his sister,
Alisa, has been the single greatest force (and pocket) assisting American
research libraries. His contributions also funded such great publishing
enterprises as the Bollingen series and the Trianon Press editions of
William Blake. I was fortunate to do some work for Mr. Mellon from time to time,
and I frankly admit to hero worship. They don’t make collectors like this
anymore.
Any visitor to Mellon’s personal museum, the Brick House,
on the grounds of his country estate in
Upperville
,
Virginia
, would have quickly seen the centrality of books in Mellon’s interests. The
largest single space was the second floor library, dubbed "the Abbey
Room" because its primary contents was the great collection of books
illustrated in aquatint and lithography formed by Major J.R. Abbey, and
described by him in four volumes of detailed catalogues, which remain a primary
reference in their field. Mellon bought the collections for Abbey en bloc in the
early 1950s (via John Carter), and then added to them over a twenty-year period.
It was typical of Mellon that he made sure to keep such a resource together for
future scholars. The Abbey Collection is now intact at the
Yale
Center
for British Art.
Mellon began by collecting sporting books, mainly Alken, et
al, while a student at
Cambridge
in the 1930s. With his first wife, Mary, who died in 1946, he soon found more
sophisticated fare in assembling alchemical and occult manuscripts, as part of
the same Jungian enthusiasms which fueled the Bollingen series. With his
second wife, Rachel Lambert Mellon, he shared a passion for great works of
botany and horticulture; Mrs. Mellon’s Garden Library and her collecting are
justly famous in their own right. On his own, in high gear from the early 1950s
to the early 1970s, Mr. Mellon tackled British books in the largest sense, from
Caxton to Blake, and especially illustrated works, Americana and Virginiana,
atlases, and additions to Abbey and the sporting collection. Whipped cream on
top was the surviving core of John Locke’s library (later given to the
Bodleian), and scattered around the edges were purchases for libraries,
including the ever controversial Vinland Map for Yale, as well as Boswell
Papers.
In the end Mellon gave all of the collections to research
libraries. Much of the British material moved to the
Yale
Center
for British Art in his lifetime, but enough remained in Upperville at the time
of his death to make the bequests from his estate a major event for recipients.
Once again, the lion’s share went to the Center, who got the sporting books,
the rest of Abbey and atlases (the Holy Roman Emperor’s copy of Blaeu’s Atlas
Major), and British fine printing (all of Kelmscott, another early
enthusiasm). The surprise, for many, was the
Americana
and Virginiana. Had Mellon collected nothing else, this comparative sideline
would have ranked as one of the great collections in the field. It was divided
by Mellon’s executors between four libraries: the Center for British Art and
the Beinecke Library at Yale, and the
University
of
Virginia
and the Virginia Historical Society in Mellon’s adopted home states.
The actual transfer of the bequests prompted a string of
exhibitions and publications. UVA put on a striking show from their new arrivals
in the fall of 2000, ranging from the first illustrated Columbus Letter of 1493
to wonderful
Jefferson
material. The Virginia Historical Society launched its bequest exhibit in
September 2000, and happily, this show of one hundred items has a beautifully
illustrated catalogue, Treasures Revealed, detailing high spots relating
to
Virginia
history. Copies of the catalogue can be purchased from the VHS for $60 plus $20
for first class shipping to
England
; write Museum Shop, Virginia Historical Society,
P.O. Box 7311
,
Richmond
,
VA
23221
, phone 804-342-9603.
The
Yale
Center
for British Art put on two shows from the bequest. The first, a selection of
the sporting books, appeared in the spring of 2001 and has a small catalogue,
‘The Compleat Horseman’: Sporting Books from the Bequest of Paul
Mellon." It can be ordered from YCBA, P.O. Box 208280, New Haven, CT 06520,
phone 203-432-2800. The second, "Wilde Amerike," drew on
Americana
and atlases from the bequest and material from earlier gifts, and was on view
in the fall of 2001.
The one Mellon bequest show that you, the reader, can
actually go see is the Beinecke Library exhibit, which opens May 3 and will be
up through the summer. Entitled: "Illustrated to the Life: America
Pictured Americana From the Paul Mellon Bequest," it was organized by
George Miles of the Beinecke and William Reese (yes, yes, I must keep busy), and
focuses on the wide and wonderful variety of Mellon’s illustrated Americana,
encompassing illustrated travel narratives, grand plate books, maps and atlases,
works of architecture, art instruction, and natural history, children’s books
of games, trade catalogues, images of Native Americans, original watercolors and
drawings, and much more. The Beinecke has spared no expense in producing a
superb catalogue, all in color, and coffee table appropriate, with descriptions
of the material by Miles and Reese. It can, it will, it must, find a place on
every reference shelf! Copies can be had from the publisher, the University
Press of New England,
23 S. Main St.
Hanover
,
New Hampshire
03755-2055
(call 800-421-1561 or
www.dartmouth.edu/acad-inst/upne
for $50. Better yet, come to Beinecke and see the show, any
weekday from
8:45
to
4:45
from May 3 through the summer, and see why Mellon should be remembered for
books as well as art.
- William Reese
