Lever Ashton,Sir (1729-1788)

Sir Ashton Lever (1729-1788)
by Kimberly Jordan
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Sir Ashton Lever was born into landed gentry in 1729. At the family home of Alkrington Hall near Manchester, Lever developed a keen interest in ornithology at a young age, and quickly formed an aviary of nearly four thousand birds, gaining a reputation as one of the finest in Britain. His Natural History collection, originally housed at Alkrington Hall, is said to have started in 1760, when he bought a large number of foreign shells from Dunkirk. By 1773, an article in The Gentleman's Magazine referenced Lever's collection, noting that it consisted of thirteen hundred glass cases "placed in three rooms besides four sides of rooms shelved from top to bottom with glass doors before them". Lever regarded his collection as one of Natural History, an area dominated by "gentlemen amateurs" who observed, collected and recorded their artefacts as a hobby. Very few of these private collectors published their findings, however Lever was later to write frequently with regards to his collection, wishing to encourage "the pursuit of natural knowledge", regarded as useful and appropriate to a gentleman's standing. Despite this sentiment, some felt that his obsession for collecting "was, in any case, collecting on a scale and of such energy likely to breach the standards of gentlemanly decorum." Not only was Natural History collecting a hobby, but it was regarded as a popular topic of conversation among the gentry, "not just in the field or in cabinets, but at fairs, markets, in taverns or in the streets". It was in this spirit that Lever held a public display of his stuffed specimens at the King's Arms in Manchester in 1766.
Lever's museum at Alkrington proved to be very popular, attracting visitors of all classes, however, he had to sell some of his land in Lancashire to fund his insatiable desire to own every curious' object he could lay his hands on. In 1774, anticipating an increasing interest of his ever-growing collection, Lever leased Leicester House in London's Leicester Fields (now Square) for the sum of 600 per annum. The Holophusikon, as he named it, opened in February 1775, with an entry fee of half a guinea. Charging an entrance fee was necessary in order to pay the lease and to fund additions to the collection, however was frowned upon, given Lever's social standing.
In 1775 Captain James Cook returned from his second voyage to the South Seas, providing some of the first items for European collections of Pacific ethnography. Private

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collectors were eager to attain these curiosities' acquiring them both directly and indirectly from returning seamen such as Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander. Among these collectors, the most notable was Lever, whose collection was to impress Cook to such an extent that he was to give him all the ethnographic articles bought back from Australia. Lever had begun collecting items of natural history however Cooks voyages were to greatly influence his collection by directing his attention to the arts of the Pacific.
Cook's second voyage to the South Seas in the years 1772-75 altered the perceptions held by Europeans of the world beyond their own continent. He enabled natural scientists and artists to visit, study and depict the islands and inhabitants, and it was the aim of these men to ensure an understanding of the nature and development of the human species. With him on board the Resolution was landscape artist William Hodges, whose role it was to paint landscapes and peoples that until then had existed only in fantasy. Hodges, a pupil of Richard Wilson, "bought with him the classical tradition of landscapea knowledge of art theory and a strong sense of the moral purpose of landscape painting." Though Hodges executed his paintings from the second voyage to an incredibly high standard, it is questionable as to how honestly he portrayed the other', given that he "sought to conform to the taste of his time by adapting it to the Italianate landscape." The voyage to the South Seas demonstrated a need to place new' peoples within an existing framework of human development.
There were seventeen rooms arranged over two floors at Lever's Holophusikon at Leicester House. Lever had in his possession numerous catalogues of foreign collectors, and so would have been familiar with the curatorial aspects of collection. Most of the rooms displayed two very different kinds of objects, with the rooms being named after the dominant articles. Lever appears to have paid more attention to the aesthetics of particular objects as opposed to attempting to place in some sort of scientific order. His motivations behind this may have stemmed from a desire to stimulate the less informed visitor, by offering contrasts of shape, colour, form, texture and materials. Though objects may not easily have been compared for scientific study, the seemingly haphazard choice of arrangement would have ensured that each room held a selection of objects to interest each individual.

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This is exemplified in an account of the collection published in The European Magazine the writer states that "the variety of objects, and the beauty of the colours, give sensations of surprise and delight".
Artist Sarah Stone seems to have been chief artist working at the museum, having produced watercolours of a wide variety of the natural specimens on display there. She produced the only image of the museum interior when under the ownership of Lever, a painting which depicts the first floor of the museum. Upon entering the museum, visitors would have been directed up a staircase adorned with animal parts such as feet, horns, teeth and tusks, and would then have entered into a room lined with glass cabinets housing seeds, pods, plants and other manners of things. The first floor was dominated mainly by natural specimens, for example, insects and a stuffed hippopotamus in one room, birds and fossils in another. Lever invited his guests to be entertained by nature's diversity, for example, by juxtaposing hummingbirds with ostriches. This would, as Christine Jackson has pointed out, have been highly frustrating for naturalists as Lever seemingly made no attempt to arrange his specimens scientifically.
The ground floor was designated to artificial curiosities, the first room being known as the Wardrobe and encompassing clothes from civilised' nations. The following three rooms were dedicated to articles from Cook's voyages, representing the savage' nations, and contrasting the objects displayed in the Wardrobe. The curious artefacts bought back from the Pacific were coming to be recognised in Europe as works of art in their own right, and Lever's choice of display would surely have presented these articles as artworks. Despite this recognition of world art', the later break up of the Leverian collection has been suggested by P.J. Marshall and Glyndwr Williams, as a result of the lack of interest in England in many ethnographic items bought back from the Pacific.
Cooks second voyage was "a key moment in the foundation of the methodologies of ethnography and anthropology, as they would develop in the nineteenth century," and perhaps had Lever conformed to a conventional method of taxonomy his collection could have been utilised as a birthing pool for the two disciplines. It must not be overlooked, however, that he did draw comparisons between apes and humans in the Monkey Room, a controversial act, and likely to have been inspired by

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the debates on the relationship between man and monkey. A letter by Susan Burney to her sister in 1778 describes "a room full of monkeys one which presents the company with an Italian song, another is reading a book" Despite the criticisms he received as a result of his haphazard methods of display, he did happen to exemplify the likeness of man and ape, before evolutionary theory had been properly recognised.
Above all, Lever's vast collection of artificial and natural objects convey his genuine curiosity of the other'. What may have begun as a display of prestige and a suitable hobby for a man of high class became an addiction, both ruinous of his bank balance and reputation as a gentleman. Lever did not conform to any conventional methods of taxonomy, and although he carefully labelled his specimens, his method of display did not allow for easy typological comparison, in the way that, for example, the collection of Pitt Rivers would a century later. It has been suggested that Lever's decontextualisation of his articles from the South Seas focuses on their aesthetical differences to European objects as opposed to the objects in detail, however, the descriptions in the Companion of some of the objects "reveals how taste in England was gradually being accommodated to forms of art which were'not in the likeness of anything that is known on our side of the ocean'". This surely could be indicative that Lever's choice of display did not patronise the produce of the other' but enabled an appreciation of their skill instead. Writing in response to William Robertson's History of America, 1777, Edmunde Burke states:
"We possess at this time very great advantages towards the knowledge of human Nature. We no longer need to go to History to trace it in all its stages and periodsBut now the Great map of mankind is unrolld at once; and there is no state or Gradation of barbarism, and no mode of refinement which we have not at the same instant under our view."
Lever's collection was valued in 1783, by which time he had accumulated some 28,000 articles. Taking into account Edmunde Burke's statement we could consider Lever's collection itself to have been a "Great map of mankind" however due to his lack of a recognised system of taxonomy he was subject to criticism. In 1806, the collection (now owned by James Parkinson) was offered to Sir Joseph Banks, a naturalist who had accompanied Cook on his first voyage. According to the diary of Joseph

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Farrington, a great London gossip, Banks declined the offer as "he hated Sir Ashton Lever and therefore hates his collection." Christine Jackson suggests that Banks may have disliked Lever as he had arranged his specimens aesthetically as opposed to scientifically and made no attempt of taxonomical order.
Although Lever seriously decontextualised the artefacts in his collection, as did most other contemporary collectors, he did not attempt to adapt his collection to suit European tastes in the same way that artist Hodges may have been doing with his classical landscapes produced in the South Pacific. Lever's interests, although stemming from objects of natural history lay in the aesthetics of artefacts as opposed to the information to be gained from them. Lever's method of display was a frame through which people were invited to make opinions of the other', his juxtaposition inviting contrasts to be drawn between the different items. Lever portrayed the other' as a sensual extravaganza, displaying nature's diversity of form, colour, texture and so forth. Clare Haynes has suggested that Lever was attempting to represent nature inside the museum in the same way that appears in the outside world, "full of wonder, all-encompassing, engulfing, dazzling and confusing". Intellectually informed visitors, therefore, would have been able to select individual items from the collection for further examination, and the less informed visitors would have been prompted by the juxtapositions offered to them. Lever's method of display ultimately invited people to make their own interpretations of encounters with the other.' What is important, however, when considering Lever's collection, is that he invited visitors to look upon his ethnographic objects in the same way that they would have looked upon the European items in the Wardrobe. This essentially provided a frame through which encounters with the other' could be interpreted, in the same way that visitors would interpret the encounters with the other civilised' nations.
Bibliography
Bindman, David "Philanthropy seems natural to mankind": Hodges and Captain Cook's second voyage to the South Seas in William Hodges 1744-1797: The Art of Exploration Ed. By Geoff Quilley and John Bonehill, London, 2004
Bonehill, John Hodges and Cook's Second Voyage in William Hodges 1744-1797: The Art of Exploration Ed. By Geoff Quilley and John Bonehill, London, 2004
Haynes, Clare A Natural' Exhibitioner: Sir Ashton Lever and his Holophusikon pp.1-13 in British Journal for Eighteenth Century Studies, Volume 24, No. 1, Spring 2001
Jackson, Christine E. Sarah Stone: Natural Curiosities from the New Worlds London, 1998
Marshall, P.J. & Williams, Glyndwr The Great Map of Mankind: British Perceptions of the World in the Age of Enlightenment London, 1982
Quilley, Geoff William Hodges, Artist of Empire in William Hodges 1744-1797: The Art of Exploration Ed. By Geoff Quilley and John Bonehill, London, 2004
Smith, Bernard European Vision and the South Pacific London, 1985
Leverian Museum: Companion to the Museum 1790, London, 1979

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Curiosity cabinets explained
by John Welford
The idea of the curiosity cabinet goes back to the 15th century, when collectors of (mostly) small objects, whether botanical specimens, religious relics, precious objects, or whatever, would store them in drawers in small- to medium-sized wooden cabinets, which could even be transported with them if needed. They can therefore be regarded as mini-museums. Because the items to be stored would vary in size and shape, cabinet-makers designed them with drawers and shelves of different dimensions.
Cabinets were kept by all sorts of people. Physicians collected anatomical specimens, merchants acquired samples of merchandise from their trading partners, travelers to distant lands used them to store the weird and wonderful things that they brought back with them, amateur fossil-hunters kept their finds in them, royalty used larger cabinets to make collections of weapons and armor. It is highly probable that many of the "curiosities" were faked objects, such as two-headed toads and the like, made and sold to gullible travelers by local traders who could spot a market opportunity a mile off !
These were private collections, but a collector would often be happy to show off the contents of his cabinet to guests who called at his home. This function developed especially during the 17th and 18th centuries, when wealthier families tended to send their sons off on the "Grand Tour", and they would return with objects that needed to be preserved and shown off. The curiosity cabinet was ideal for the smaller objects, and the talents of cabinet-makers such as Sheraton, Chippendale and Hepplewhite sometimes turned to producing fine pieces of craftsmanship for this purpose, which would stand in the libraries of the grand houses of wealthy people.
The curiosity cabinet was a European invention, and it was especially popular in Germany, where the term "Wunderkammern" or "cabinet of wonders" was coined. A true Wunderkammern was, therefore, a repository of the unusual and strange, and needs to be distinguished from a simple set of drawers for keeping everyday things neat and tidy.
One important aspect of a curiosity cabinet is that it enabled items to be sorted by type, with the drawers labeled appropriately. This was therefore a form of classification. Much as a scholar's books would be sorted by subject on his shelves, his collection of artifacts would be sorted according to the drawers in his cabinet. The curiosity cabinet was therefore part of a much larger development

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that connects with the Age of Enlightenment and the advent of scientific method, according to which phenomena were seen in connection with each other as opposed to discrete items that were there solely as the result of divine creation.
Many notable scholars were avid collectors, and kept huge numbers of items in their cabinets. One such was Ulisse Aldrovandi, a 16th century Renaissance man whose cabinets eventually contained more than 18,000 natural history specimens.
King Frederick III of Denmark (reigned 1648-70) was a royal collector, whose "Kunstkammer" consisted of cabinets devoted to a wide range of subjects, including stuffed animals, shells, silver, ivory, weapons, models, and much more. This private collection was broken up around 1825 to form the nucleus of several specialist museums.
The link between these private collections of curiosities, kept in cabinets, and publicly accessible museums, with objects on display, is a strong one. Two owners of substantial curiosity cabinet collections were the Englishmen John Tradescant, father and son (c.1575-1638 and 1608-62), who were botanists and inveterate collectors. They welcomed visitors to view their collections and charged a fee for so doing. On the death of the younger John Tradescant the collection passed to Elias Ashmole (1617-92), and he presented it to the University of Oxford, in 1677, as a major resource for scientific study, and in 1683 they made it available to view by the general public as well as the students of the University. It thus became the foundation of the Ashmolean Museum, one of the world's first public museums, which still exists.
Early museums were places where objects were kept and preserved first, and displayed second. The idea of placing exhibits in glass-fronted display cases, with subdued lighting, temperature and humidity controls, and explanatory labels, is a relatively recent one. Even late in the 20th century you could still find museums, especially smaller ones, where the visitor was expected to open drawers in cabinets to see the exhibits. Their origin as a set of cabinets of curiosities was not hard to divine.

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by K. Fred
The first museums were collections privately held. These collections were started during the 16th and 17th centuries. They were usually named Curiosity Cabinets in the English speaking countries. Though other names were used such as, Cabinet's of Wonders, Wunder-kammer, Rariteitenkabinett, and Chamber's of Curiosities. These collections usually were divided into three segments. Natural, artificial, and scientific. The collector's could be found from the Pope to a local Tavern with the most spectacular one's largely owned by the wealthy.
While specimens that were either exotic, rare, or had anomalies most collections also contained artifacts from the owner's ancestor's and specimens that were representative of the locale in which the collector lived.
Collector's traveled far and wide in search of specimens that had never been seen before. They enjoyed the thrill of family and friends who were shown such things as shrunken heads, weapons, paintings, fossils, and stuffed animals never seen before in Britain and North America.
Elias Ashmole donated his collection to the Oxford University in 1691 and it became the Ashmolean Museum. This museum was Britain's first public museum and went on display in 1693.
Not only was the Curiosity Cabinet's precursor's to museums but because of the diversity found in them they were also a basis for modern humanities and science.

da controllare e sistemare
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Sir Ashton Lever (1729-1788)
Naturalista inglese, nato a Alkrington, vicino a Manchester, Inghilterra, il 5 marzo 1729. Morì il 24 gennaio 1788 a Manchester.
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Sir James Darcy Lever, est un collectionneur britannique, né le 5 mars 1729 à Alkrington près de Manchester et mort le 24 janvier 1788 à Manchester.
Il commence une immense collection vers 1760 sans que l'on sache exactement ses motivations premières. Il se met aussitôt à acheter des collections de coquillages exotiques, de fossiles, d'oiseaux naturalisés, de costumes traditionnels, d'armes et d'autres curiosités. Il acquiert ainsi une partie des collections que Johann Reinhold Forster, ruiné, est obligé de vendre à son retour à Londres. La première mention de son cabinet de curiosités date de 1773 et mentionne 1 300 boîtes vitrées réparties dans sept pièces différentes.
En 1774, il installe son musée à Londres et le fait visiter contre un droit de visite. Celui-ci est destiné à le rembourser pour ses dépenses et lui permettre d'acheter de nouveaux spécimens. Malgré l'énorme succès qu'il rencontre au début, ces recettes ne lui permettent pas de faire face aux coûts exorbitants de l'entretien de ses collections. Mais celles-ci sont célèbres pour leur richesse et attirent de nombreux scientifiques, notamment Thomas Pennant et John Latham, qui les utilisent pour leurs publications.
En 1781, il commence à ne plus pouvoir faire face aux dépenses courantes et lance un appel à l'aide. En 1783, il propose au gouvernement d'acheter l'intégralité de ses collections pour une fraction de son prix réel afin d'enrichir le British Museum, malheureusement sans succès. Il est contraint alors de les mettre en vente par un système de tickets de loterie. Ce projet se solde à nouveau par un échec, seuls 8 000 tickets sont vendus sur un total de 36 000. Rendu malade par le devenir de sa collection, sir Lever meurt dans la plus grande misère.
C'est un certain James Parkinson qui gagne la collection mais lui-même est trop pauvre pour l'entretenir. Il l'offre à nouveau au gouvernement mais celui-ci refuse encore. Parkinson demande alors à Joseph Banks de l'aider mais ce dernier détestait sir Lever et refuse de prendre en charge ces collections. Elle finit par être vendue aux enchères en 1806 et est entièrement dispersée. La plupart des objets échouent dans des collections privées et, en général, disparaissent totalement. D'autres, plus rares et plus chanceux, sont acquis par des institutions étrangères, comme le muséum de Vienne.

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Sir Ashton Lever (1729-1788)
Naturalista inglese, è nato a Alkrington, vicino a Manchester, Inghilterra, il 5 marzo 1729. Morì il 24 gennaio 1788 a Manchester.
Leverian Museum. Sir James Darcy Lever, è stato educato a Manchester, e al Corpus Christi College di Oxford.
Dopo aver lasciato Oxford, è rimasto per alcuni anni a Manchester con sua madre, per partire in seguito ad Alkrington Hall, Londra.
Sin da allora aveva passione per l'equitazione, tiro con l'arco, ed era appassionato collezionista di oggetti di vari. Nel Regno era famoso per le sue voliere che teneva ad
Alkrington e per gli oggetti di storia naturale, armi e costumi.. Una raccolta famosa che
attirava visitatori a pagamento.
Nel 1774 egli è stato indotto a rimuovere il suo museo, che ha dato il nome di Holophusikon, o Holophusicon, conosciuto come Leverian Museum a Londra.
Leicester ha preso l'Assemblea, in Leicester Square, e riempito 16 trimestri, e più con le sue scale pasilloos curiosità, la definizione degli orari di apertura e di ammissione.
Eccellente naturalista, cresciuto circondato da eccentricità nel vestire e di agire.
Il eccessi di spesa registrati nel museo è deteriorata la sua fortuna.
Dopo essere stati valutati da una commissione parlamentare prima a L. 53.000, è stato offerto a un volume moderato somma al British Museum nel 1783, ma i gestori del museo è rifiutato di acquistarlo.
Il museo cadde nelle mani del Signor James Parkinson,
James Parkinson, che ha esposto in un edificio chiamato La Rotonda.
Per alcuni anni egli è stato qui un simbolo di Londra, ma alla fine è stato trascurato, e il proprietario è messa all'asta.
Il catalogo di vendita, realizzate da Edward Donovan, riempie 410 pagine.
La collezione è anche descritto nella parte G. Shaw’s Museum Leverianum, 1792,
Un certo numero di esemplari Leverian sono ancora conservati nella collezione di Kennington, Surrey, per il signor Syer Cuming’s. Syer Cuming's.
Leva è stato elevato sceriffo del Lancashire nel 1771.
Dopo aver perso il suo museo ritirato a Alkrington, dove morì improvvisamente nel Bull's Head Inn, Manchester, il 24 gennaio 1788, a 58 anni di età.
Ha sposato nel 1746 con Francesca, figlia di James Bayley di Manchester, ma non ha avuto figli.

The Holophusikon (or Holophusicon, also known as the Leverian Museum) was a museum of natural curiosities exhibited at Leicester House, on Leicester Square in London, England, from 1775 to 1786 by Ashton Lever. The collection was acquired by a James Parkinson (not the famous doctor) through a lottery in 1786, but continued to be displayed at Leicester House until Lever's death in 1788. Parkinson then moved the collection to a Rotunda at No. 3 Blackfriars Road, before it was dispersed in an auction in 1806. The museum took its name from its supposedly universal coverage of natural history,[1] and was essentially a huge cabinet of curiosities.
Lever collected fossils, shells, and animals (birds, insects, reptiles, fish, monkeys) for many years, accumulating a large collection at his home at Alkrington, near Manchester. He was swamped with visitors, whom he allowed to view his collection for free, so much so that he had to insist that visitors that arrived on foot would not be admitted. He decided to exhibit the collection in London as a commercial venture, charging an entrance fee.[2]
Lever acquired a lease of Leicester House in 1774, converting the principal rooms on the first floor into a single large gallery running the length of the house, and opened his museum in February 1775, with around 25,000 exhibits (a small fraction of his collection) valued at over £40,000.[1][3] The display included many natural and ethnographic items gathered by Captain James Cook on his voyages.[4]
Lever charged an entry fee of 5s. 3d., or two guineas for an annual ticket, and the museum had a degree of commercial success: the receipts in 1782 were £2,253.[1] In an effort to draw in the crowds, Lever later reduced the entrance fee to half a crown (2s. 6d.),[1][4], and was constantly looking for new exhibits. He also set out his exhibits to impress the visitor, as well as (unusually) including educational information. However, he spent more on new exhibits than he raised in entrance fees.
The British Museum and Catherine II of Russia both refused to buy the collection, so Lever obtained an Act of Parliament in 1784 to sell the whole by lottery. He only sold 8,000 tickets at a guinea each - he had hoped for 36,000[4] - and it was then broken up by a James Parkinson (not the famous doctor).[1] It was displayed at Leicester House until Lever's death in 1788, at a reduced entrance fee of 1s., [4] and Parkinson then transferred it to a Rotunda at No. 3 Blackfriars Road. Leicester House was then demolished in 1791.[1][4]
Parkinson sold the collection in lots by auction in 1806.[1] Many items were bought by collectors such as Edward Donovan, Edward Stanley, 13th Earl of Derby and William Bullock; many items also went to other museums, such as the Imperial Museum of Vienna. The contents of the museum are unusually well recorded, from a catalogue of the museum created in 1784, and the sale catalogue in 1806, together with a contemporary series of watercolours of its contents by Sarah Stone.

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From 1712 to 1760, Leicester House was the palace of the Princes of Wales, and from their constant family quarrels was most happily named by Pennant "the pouting place of princes." During this period a passage was built connecting Leicester with Savile House. of which we shall speak directly.
In 1718, the Prince of Wales, afterwards George II, having quarrelled with his father and been commanded to quit St. James's, purchased Leicester House. Here in 1721, his son, the "bloody, butcher " of Culloden was born.
When George II, in his turn quarrelled with his eldest son Frederick, the latter took up his abode and held his court in Leicester House, doing everything he could to vex and annoy his father from thence. During his residence here the first performance was given within these walls which were soon to become the resting place of "shows" innumerable. The play given was Addison's " Cato," the Prince's eldest son, afterwards George III, sustaining the character of Portius. In 1751, Frederick died here.
Leicester House was subsequently, occupied by private persons and then passed into the hands of Sir Ashton Lever, who there opened his "Holophusikon," which was a museum of curiosities of all kinds, including all the objects of interest collected by Captain Cook. He at first charged five shillings and threepence admission, then half-a-crown; but all to no purpose, the show was a failure.

The original site of Leicester Square - From 'Old and New London' 1897
He therefore applied to Parliament for permission to dispose of it by lottery in 36,000 shares, at a guinea a piece; he however, sold but 8,000 and the museum passed into the hands of the winner, Mr. Parkinson. He lowered his charge to one shilling, but all ill vain, it still had no success, and the contents were disposed of under the hammer.