eprintid: 10183846 rev_number: 17 eprint_status: archive userid: 699 dir: disk0/10/18/38/46 datestamp: 2024-01-17 14:14:28 lastmod: 2024-01-18 15:21:56 status_changed: 2024-01-17 14:14:28 type: book_section metadata_visibility: show sword_depositor: 699 creators_name: Patrizio Gunning, Lucia title: The British Consuls in the Aegean as Collectors of Antiquities for the British Museum ispublished: pub divisions: UCL divisions: B03 divisions: C03 divisions: F28 note: This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions. abstract: The book tells the story of how the British consular service in the Aegean, in the years of the British protectorate of the Ionian Islands (1815-1864) became an agency for the retrieval, excavation and collection of antiquities eventually destined for the British Museum. Exploring the historical, political and diplomatic circumstances that allowed the consular service to develop from a chartered company into a state run institution under the direction of the Foreign Office, it provides a unique perspective on the intersection of state policy, private ambition, and the collecting of antiquities. Drawing extensively on consular correspondence, the study sets out several challenges to current views. For those interested in the history of travel in the Levant, or more generally in the Grand Tour, the book presents an alternative point of view that challenges the travellers' descriptions of the region. The book also intersects with British diplomatic history, providing an insight into the consuls in both their official and private circumstances, and comparing their situation under the Levant Company with that of the Foreign Office run consular service. The complex political situation in the Aegean at the time of the take over of the service is examined along with the political and commercial roles of the consuls, their daily dealings with the Greeks and Ionians, and also with the Ottoman authorities. Through private correspondence, it shows how the consuls' reflected the belief that Greek, Egyptian, Babylonian, Roman and other antiquities would be better looked after in a British, French, German or American museum, than by the people, and in the countries, they were created for. In particular, the book illuminates the public/private nature of the consuls' role, the way they worked with, but independently of, government, and it reveals how Britain was able to acquire major pieces of sculpture from the nineteenth century Aegean. date: 2009-03-28 date_type: published publisher: Routledge official_url: https://www.routledge.com/The-British-Consular-Service-in-the-Aegean-and-the-Collection-of-Antiquities/Gunning/p/book/9780754660231 oa_status: green full_text_type: other book_type: book language: eng primo: open primo_central: open_green verified: verified_manual elements_id: 1001933 doi: 10.4324/9781315240954 isbn_13: 9780754660231 lyricists_name: Patrizio Gunning, Lucia lyricists_id: LPATR22 actors_name: Patrizio Gunning, Lucia actors_id: LPATR22 actors_role: owner full_text_status: public place_of_pub: Oxfordshire, UK pagerange: 137-189 pages: 234 book_title: The British Consular Service in the Aegean and the Collection of Antiquities for the British Museum citation: Patrizio Gunning, Lucia; (2009) The British Consuls in the Aegean as Collectors of Antiquities for the British Museum. [Book]. In: The British Consular Service in the Aegean and the Collection of Antiquities for the British Museum. (pp. 137-189). Routledge: Oxfordshire, UK. Green open access document_url: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10183846/1/Patrizio%20Gunning_Gunning_British_Consuls_Chapter_4_Final.pdf