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Charles Willes Wilshere (1814–1906) was an English landowner, now best known as a collector of early Christian art.[1][2]

Life

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He was the third son of Thomas Wilshere of Hitchin, and his wife Lora Beaumont, daughter of Charles Beaumont of Hartford Hill, Huntingdonshire;[3] he was the younger brother of William Wilshere MP (1806–1867), and nephew of William Wilshere (1754–1824) the banker. His sister Laura married Thomas Mills MP.[4]

Wilshere matriculated at Trinity College, Cambridge in 1833, and was admitted at Lincoln's Inn in 1836.[3] He supported the Tractarian movement of the 1830s and 1840s, and later the English Church Union.[5][6] In 1884 Harmer Green Chapel, a short way east of Welwyn, was built to a design by Wilshere and opened as a mission room.[7] According to F. J. A. Hort's biographer, he was "a student of ecclesiastical history and antiquities."[8]

In 1858 Wilshere joined the Alpine Club.[9] In 1867, on the death of his brother William, he inherited The Frythe.[3]

The Frythe Welwyn, Seat of Charles Willes Wilshere Esqure J.P., 1877 lithograph

Collection and legacy

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Wilshere is particularly known for his collection of gold glass. The Vetri ornati di figure in oro: trovati nei cimiteri cristiani di Roma (1858) of Raffaele Garrucci explains the origins of the "Recupero collection", named for barone Alessio Recupero of Catania.[10][11] Wilshire purchased from the collection at Capobianchi, dealers on Via del Babuino, Rome.[12] At the time, the pieces were dated to the 4th century.[13] A note to Charles Drury Edward Fortnum shows that Wilshere used the diplomatic bag to have Recupero collection pieces shipped from Florence to the South Kensington Museum.[14]

Left by Wilshere to Pusey House, Oxford, the collection was for many years on loan to the Ashmolean Museum. In 2007 the Ashmolean purchased it.[15]

Wilshere corresponded, in Italian, with the Italian archaeologist Giovanni Battista de Rossi, and a collection of 69 letters from him to de Rossi are in the Vatican Library.[14][16]

Family

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Wilshere married in 1840 Elisabeth Marie Farmer, daughter of William Meeke Farmer MP. The couple had four daughters. Florence (1848–1877), the third daughter, married in 1869 Guilbert Edward Wyndham Malet of the Royal Horse Artillery, son of the Rev. William Wyndham Malet of Ardeley.[4][17] Alice Augusta, the last surviving daughter, left no heir, and on her death in 1934 the estate was inherited by Gerald Maunsell Gamul Farmer, who took the surname Wilshere.[18]

Notes

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  1. ^ Bateman, John (1879). The Great Landowners of Great Britain and Ireland. Harrison and Sons. p. 475.
  2. ^ Jensen, Robin M.; Ellison, Mark D. (20 May 2018). The Routledge Handbook of Early Christian Art. Routledge. p. 319. ISBN 978-1-317-51417-6.
  3. ^ a b c "Wilshere, Charles Willes (WLSR833CW)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
  4. ^ a b Crisp, Frederick Arthur (1919). Visitation of England and Wales. Vol. XX. London: Priv. printed. pp. 202–203.
  5. ^ Keller, Daniel; Price, Jennifer; Jackson, Caroline (30 May 2014). Neighbours and Successors of Rome: Traditions of Glass Production and use in Europe and the Middle East in the Later 1st Millennium AD. Oxbow Books. p. 68. ISBN 978-1-78297-398-0.
  6. ^ The Church Union Gazette. English Church Union. 1877. p. 35.
  7. ^ Busby, Richard J. (1976). The Book of Welwyn: The Story of the Five Villages and the Garden City. Barracuda Books Limited. p. 40. ISBN 978-0-86023-023-6.
  8. ^ Hort, Arthur (1896). Life and letters of Fenton John Anthony Hort. Vol. I. London, New York: Macmillan and co., ltd. p. 357.
  9. ^ The Alpine Journal: A Record of Mountain Adventure and Scientific Observation. Vol. 62–63. Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts, and Green. 1957. p. 37.
  10. ^ Garrucci, Raffaele (1864). Vetri ornati di figure in oro: trovati nei cimiteri cristiani di Roma (in Italian). Tipografia delle belle arti.
  11. ^ Art, Great Britain Department of Science and (1870). The First Proofs of the Universal Catalogue of Books on Art Compiled for the Use of the National Art Library and the Schools of Art in the United Kingdom by Order of the Lords of the Committee of Council on Education: A-K (in French). Chapman and Hall. p. 639.
  12. ^ https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/classics/research/dept_projects/latininscriptions/resources/ashli.finalcatalogue.nonmonumental.pdf, p. 230
  13. ^ "In Engeland., De Gids. Jaargang 32". DBNL (in Dutch).
  14. ^ a b Morais, Rui; Leão, Delfim; Pérez, Diana Rodríguez; Ferreira, Daniela (11 March 2019). Greek Art in Motion: Studies in honour of Sir John Boardman on the occasion of his 90th Birthday. Archaeopress Publishing Ltd. p. 313. ISBN 978-1-78969-024-8.
  15. ^ Vickers, Michael, "The Wilshere Collection of Early Christian and Jewish Antiquities in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford," Miscellanea a Emilio Marin Sexagenario Dicata, Kacic, 41–43 (2009–2011), pp. 605–614, PDF Archived 19 October 2017 at the Wayback Machine. Vickers describes the whole collection, on loan to the museum from Pusey House until bought in 2007. The glass is described at 609–613
  16. ^ "A New Line from Rome to London". www.ashmolean.org.
  17. ^ "Malet, Guilbert Edward Wyndham". Who's Who. A & C Black. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  18. ^ "Wilshere Estate, 1806-1954". nationalarchives.gov.uk. 1806–1954.
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