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Knight Family Genealogy Sir Augustus Wollaston Franks |
 Sir Augustus Wollaston Franks (1826-1897) |
 'Collecting is a hereditary disease, and I fear incurable.' ...Sir Augustus Wollaston Franks |
| Augustus Franks was a collector on the scale of
Richard Payne Knight who was his great grandmother's cousin. Like
Richard Payne Knight he was a benefactor of the British Museum, a
bachelor, and he was also very wealthy. Richard Knight of Downton's
money continued to flow down the generations. His mother's grandmother was Sarah Knight, a granddaughter of Richard Knight of Downton and a cousin of Richard Payne Knight. Another cousin, George Knottesford Fortescue was Keeper of Books at the British Museum during the same period. Augustus was born in Geneva in 1826 the eldest and only son of Frederica Ann Sebright and Frederick Franks. Three sisters followed, Isabella (Rome 1833), Cecilia (Geneva 1835) and Frederica (Rome 1840). Their father died at 50 Baker Street, London in 1844, so whatever his business in Europe, the family presumably was back in London by then. Augustus attended Eton and was recorded in the 1841 Census there. |
| Related Pages |
| Hereditary Trustees of the British Museum |
| Richard Payne Knight |
| George Knottesford Fortescue |
| Will of his father, Frederick Franks 1844 |
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| Sir Augustus Wollaston Franks (1826-1897) |
|
Although
virtually unknown today, Sir Augustus Wollaston Franks (1826-97), is arguably
the most important collector in the history of the British Museum, and one of
the greatest collectors of his age. His name, as donor, can be seen on a myriad
of labels and registers throughout the Museum: Iznik pottery, Iron Age
metalwork, Continental porcelain, medals, bookplates, and much more. From the
Department he controlled for 30 years from 1866 are descended five of today's 10
curatorial departments. Franks was a collector on such a scale that it is
difficult to comprehend how he managed the mechanics of the operation,
particularly as he was in full-time employment. His vast bequest of 1897
included 3,300 finger rings, 153 drinking vessels, a collection of 512 pieces of
continental porcelain, 1500 netsuke, 850 inro, over 30,000 bookplates and
miscellaneous items of jewellery and plate. He had previously given some 7,000
objects in addition to the large numbers of items he bought with official funds.
Sadly, because of the unexplained disappearance of his private papers, it is
difficult to piece together his unofficial collecting activities.
He wrote towards the end of his career: I think I may fairly say that I have created the department of which I am now Keeper, and at a very moderate cost to the country. When I was appointed to the Museum in 1851 the scanty collections out of which the department has grown occupied a length of 154 feet of wall cases, and 3 or 4 table cases. The collections now occupy 2250 feet in length of wall cases, 90 table cases and 31 upright cases, to say nothing of the numerous objects placed over the cases or on walls.Collectors as a species are sometimes reluctant to set down the rationale behind their activities and, even when they do, the result is not always entirely convincing. Franks published little. A manuscript account of his life, which gives some insights into his motivation, was discovered by chance in the possession of a great-great niece in 1983. It begins: 'Collecting is a hereditary disease, and I fear incurable.' After citing family collections of manuscripts, books, birds, fruit, minerals, plants and oil paintings, Franks remarks: The collecting disease may have come into my mother's family through my great grandmother Sarah Knight, first cousin to the eminent Payne Knight.We have here two familiar themes--a family interest in collecting (although only one family member--Payne Knight is in the first rank) and a slightly embarrassed acknowledgement that the collector is in the grip of something barely understood and entirely uncontrollable, perhaps a disease or a virus. Another common element, which seems to be lacking in this instance, however, is a childhood passion for collecting, Franks merely remarking on a precocious interest in copying Egyptian hieroglyphs. The seeds of his collecting activity seem to have been sown when, like many young men of his day, he developed an interest in medieval church architecture at Cambridge University, first collecting drawings of stained glass and then branching out into medieval tiles. He joined the British Museum in 1851, charged with developing the previously neglected British collections, his family having debated long as to whether the position of museum curator was compatible with his elevated social status. He was in the enviable position for a curator (today virtually unheard of, at least in the UK) of possessing a large private fortune. The unique ninth-century ivory 'Franks Casket' from Northumbria, with its runic inscriptions was dismissed as 'some Ancient carvings in ivory', and turned down by the Museum's Trustees in 1858 when offered to them for 100 guineas. Typically it re-emerged in 1867 when Franks offered it as a gift. His collecting activities would today probably not be regarded as ethical for a curator, nor would he find it easy to develop new, unplanned, areas of interest. He was a voracious collector, travelling widely in Britain and the continent of Europe frequenting dealers, museums, salerooms and the homes of private collectors, in his pursuit of objects. Franks was not interested in art objects alone but had a particular affinity for documentary pieces. Although single, he was not a recluse, being one of a circle of collectors, often collecting vicariously, advising his friends in the knowledge that it was most likely that their collections, with careful nudging, would come to the British Museum. His great bequest of 1897 was valued at £50,000, perhaps as much as £2 million in today's money, and his previous gifts were estimated to have been worth a similar sum. Even this figure fails to do justice to Franks's generosity since single items or groups of items from his collection would fetch far more today were they to appear on the market. An example of such priceless objects is the mysterious Oxus treasure, thought to be a temple deposit, probably found in what is now Tajikistan in the late nineteenth century. Franks, a polymath--an increasingly rare entity today-- was the epitome of the scholar-collector, writing learned and original articles and maintaining a large correspondence with academics and collectors throughout the world on a vast range of subjects--Japanese flint instruments, Cypriot Bronze Age Metalwork, Anglo-Saxon ivories, Irish trumpets, medieval drinking bowls, Indian sculpture, Mexican turquoise mosaics--to name but a few. His drive to collect never ceased. A few weeks before his death, the Museum's Director wrote of him to a mutual acquaintance: I have written a sharp letter to Franks and ordered him to go south. There he is in Paris, pottering about after cups and saucers and of course going about it in his usual careless fashion--and catching cold and generally disgusting his anxious friends. |