A FINE ART FIND.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1638, 17 August 1887, Page 3

A FINE ART FIND.

- ' + The "Christian Globe" states that very remarkable discovery has recently been made at Greenwich and some gems of rare value have been brought to light These consist of valuable oil paintings by Hogarth and Sir James Thornhill, whose daughter was married to Hogarth. They were discovered m an old butcher's shop m Church street, m that town, and it appears that whilst painting his magnificent work of art on the ceiling of the dome of Greenwich Hospital, Sir James Thornln'll lived m this house. This discovery consists of 27 panels, and those by Thornhill are entirely seascapes, repre senting men-of-war of the type of the period m action, while* those of Hogarth are allegorical pictures. (Some of the panels are signed by Sir James Thornhill. Thiß house, m which Sir Jamea resided, was originally built of wood. In couree of time the greater part of the wooden structure was demolished and replaced by ft brick edifice, which was afterwards converted into a butcher's shop. The particular room, howevor, containing those panels waß left intact. Tho butcher painted all the panela over a drab stono colour, and bo they have remained for years The varnish on them, however, was so hard that they are entirely uninjured, and the paint having peeled off they are now m an almost as perfect a state as when they were painted. Some of them are as large as four feet seven inches by five feet six inches, the others smaller.