Collection: Royal Academy of Music Museum

Collection-level records:

• Collection overview (Cornucopia)

  Music Collection

  The collections include musical instruments, most of which are kept in playing order and are used by staff and students of the Academy. The string collection includes a fine group of classical Cremonese instruments from 1650 to 1740, with important examples by the Amati, Rugeri and Guameri families and by Antonio Stradivari. Pianos include instruments on loan from the Kenneth and Mary Mobbs collection, and demonstrate the technical development of the piano in England between 1790 and 1850. Percussion includes items used by James Blades. There are also personal items such as Sir Henry Wood’s tuning fork and stop watch, archives and collections of paintings and images, relating to the history of the Academy from the 1820s to the present. These include material from the working collections of Sir Henry Wood, Sir John Barbirolli, James Blades and Robert Spencer. In addition there is the McCann Collection of photographic materials, ephemera, recordings and programmes from the 19th and 20th centuries. Most of the photographs have been autographed by the sitter, and a particular strength is the availability of rare biographical and iconographical material from Eastern Europe.

  Portraiture Collection

  Painted portraits of ‘An Audition at the Royal Academy of Music’ (Sir Thomas Armstrong, Percy Waller, Marcus Thomson and Ernest Read); HRH Princess Alice Duchess of Gloucester, William Alwyn, the Hon. Cecilia Cavendish Anderson, HRH Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught, Sir Thomas Armstrong, Sir Granville Bantock, Sir John Barbirolli, Sir Arnold Bax, Ludwig van Beethoven (loan), Sir Julius Benedict, Joseph Bennett, William Sterndale Bennett, Sir Harrison Birtwistle, Major-General Richard Bond, Rosina Buckman, Doreen Carwithen, Angelica Catalani, Harriet Cohen, Belle Cole, Sir Edmund Compton, Paul Corder, William Crotch, Henry Cummings, Gaetano Donizetti, Spencer Dyke Quartet, Lilian Elde, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, Leslie England, Frederick the Great being taught to play the flute by Johann Joachim Quantz, Howard Ferguson, Herbert Fryer, Alfred Gibson, Dame Evelyn Glennie, Griller Quartet, Giulia Grisi, Stanley Hawley, John William Hobbs, Florence Hooton, Eric Hope, Ethel Kennedy Jacobs, Nathalie Janotha [Natalia Janotha], Sir Gilmour Jenkins, Frederick Jewson, Emanuel Quartet, Manuel Garcia junior, Otto Klemperer, (called) Henry Lawes, Sir Anthony Lewis, Franz Liszt, Kate Loder, John David Loder (or a member of the Loder family), Sir David Lumsden, Dame Moura Lympany, Maria Malibran, Sir George Macfarren, Sir Alexander Mackenzie, Sir Stanley Marchant, Maude Melliar, Norman McCann, Sir John McEwen, Clara Angela Macirone, Jean Sterling MacKinlay, Tobias Matthay, Lord Menuhin [Yehudi Menuhin], Julia Neilson-Terry, Phyllis Neilson-Terry, Nicolo Paganini, Alfredo Piatti, Sir Curtis Price, Ebenezer Prout, Henry Purcell, Ernest Read, Charles Rube, Anton Rubinstein, Prosper Sainton, Esther Salaman (loan), Albert Schweitzer, Constance Shacklock, Peter Simon, Jennie Stanford, Denis Stevens, Sir Arthur Sullivan, Zara Nelsova, Sir Reginald Thatcher, Dame Eva Turner, Dame Genevieve Ward [Ginevra Guerrabella], Alfred Waley, Charles Wesley, Samuel Wesley, Maude Valrie White, the Earl of Westmorland [John Fane, Lord Burghersh], Sir Henry Wood plus others including an unidentified 18th-century gentleman by Charles Philips, 1737. Drawings include portraits of Thomas Arne, Sir John Barbirolli, Sir Arnold Bax, Sir Julius Benedict, Alan Bush, Moir Carnegie, Harriet Cohen, William Crotch with Charles Burney and Benjamin Cooke, Sir Clifford Curzon, Maud Drinan, Sir Thomas Beecham, Milan Yovanovich Bratza, Dame Clara Butt, Douglas Cameron, Walter Willson Cobbett, Leslie England, Georges Enesco, Harry Farjeon, Arthur Fiedler, Wilhelm Furtwangler, Charles and Ethel Kennedy Jacobs, Sir Gilmour Jenkins, Lindsay Quartet, Norman McCann, Natalia Macfarren, Sir Alexander Mackenzie, Maria Malibran Garcia, Jessie Henderson Matthay, Yehudi Menuhin [Lord Menuhin], Benno Moiseiwich, Nicolo Paganini, Max Pirani, Felix Pissarro,Ebenezer Prout, George Robey, Mstislav Rostropovich, Dame Ethel Smyth (called), Luisa Tetrazzini, Sir Reginald Thatcher, Alfred Waley,Sir William Walton, Adam Wright, Sir Henry Wood, Eugene Ysaye, Busts, life or death masks, hands, sculptural reliefs etc relating to Arago, Johann Sebastian Bach, Michael William Balfe, Sir John Barbirolli, Daria Bayan, Ludwig van Beethoven, Charles-Auguste de Beriot, Francois-Adrien Boieldieu, Sir Warwick Braithwaite, Ole Bull, Frederic Chopin, Domenico Crivelli, Sir Clifford Curzon, Maud Drinan, the Earl of Dudley, Sir Edward Elgar, Sir Edward German, Giulia Grisi, Georg Frideric Handel, Franz Joseph Haydn, Arthur Hervey, Henri Herz, Dame Myra Hess, Otto Klemperer, Ada Lewis (or ? Elena Gerhardt), Franz Liszt, Sir Alexander Mackenzie, Tobias Matthay, George Macfarren, Sir Stanley Marchant, Felix Mendelssohn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ilya Musin, Euphrosyne Parepa-Rosa, Henry Purcell, Franz Reizenstein, Alfredo Piatti, Philip Cipriani Potter, Patrick Savill, Cyril Scott, William Shakespeare, Sir Arthur Sullivan, Sigismond Thalberg, Lionel Tertis (loan), Richard Wagner, the Earl of Westmorland (John Fane, Lord Burghersh), Sir Henry Wood, Edith Wynne Collection of mezzotints, engravings and etchings especially rich in portraits (Robert Spencer collection) of lutenists and guitarists, 17-18th century musical patrons, composers and performers, and royalty. Many other lithographs and prints (total c. 400 catalogued so far) relating to musical portraits including ensembles, caricatures etc. Large collection of music with lithographic portrait titles relating to the major singers and composers of the nineteenth century. Portraits of performers (early 20c postcards) relating to world music. Photographic archive.

  Source: Cornucopia

  Date: Not known, but before 2015

  Licence: CC BY-NC