VALUABLE PAINTINGS. Rare Works of Art Discovered in a Butcher's Shop.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 215, 13 August 1887, Page 5

VALUABLE PAINTINGS. Rare Works of Art Discovered in a Butcher's Shop.

A remarkable discovery, says the <l Christian Globe," has recently been made at Greenwich, where some artistic 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 disco vcied in an old butcher shop in Church-street in that town. It appears thai while painting his magnificent work of art on the ceiling of the dome of Greenwich Hospital, Thornhill lived in this house. The discovery consists of twenty-seven pauses, and those by Thornhill are entirely seascapes, representing men-of-war of the type(Of the period in action, while those by Js©£sarttli are allegorical pictures. Some of the j»ain,els are signed by Thornhill. The bouse in which Sir James resided was originally built of wood. In the course of time the greater part of the wooden structure was demolished and replaced by a brick edifice, which was afterwards converted into a butcher's shop. The particular room, however, containing these panels was left intact. The butcher painted all these panels a rich drab stone colour, and so they have remained for years. The varnish on them, however, was so hard that they are entirely uninjured, and tho paint having peeled off, they are in almost as perfect a state of preservation as when they were painted. Some of these are as largo as four feet seven inches by five feet six inches, the others being smaller. They are now in possession of Edwin S. Stedolwh, of Langdale House, Greenwich, and N. T. Manning, of Clyde House, 73, Blackheath Road, Greenwich.