Art: Tragedy

It transpired that part of a rare art collection owned by Joseph Pennell, American etcher, and his wife, Elizabeth Robins Pennell, author, was irreparably damaged by water in the basement of a London warehouse where it had been stored since 1917, when the Pennells gave up their residence at Adelphi Terrace, London, on account of the War, and returned to the U. S. When Mrs. Pennell went over in 1922 to secure the goods, she found 30 out of 56 cases ruined by damp. The loss is estimated at several hundred thousand dollars and can never be replaced.

The lost works included drawings, etchings, zinc and copper plates by Pennell; all the oil paintings he ever made; all the prints of his famous Panama Canal series and the original drawings for various Henry James, Irving and Howells books; rare editions and presentation copies of Stevenson, Kipling and others; drawings by Aubrey Beardsley and various pre-Raphaelites; Mrs. Pennell’s unique collection of books on cookery. Fortunately the Pennells’ fine collection of Whistleriana had previously been shipped to America. It is now in the Library of Congress, to which they had also presented much of the destroyed collection.