Archives & Library

Library Collections

The library collections cover British painting, sculpture, drawing, prints, decorative arts, architecture and garden history from the medieval period to the present day. The collections on British artists and architects, the British and Irish country house and the eighteenth-century Grand Tour are particularly strong.

Sir Brinsley Ford

This collection consists of three separate donations.

Twentieth-century Books and Exhibition Catalogues on Art and Artists

Approximately 250 titles. This collection has been fully catalogued on our Library and Photographic Archive catalogue.

A collection consisting of books and exhibition catalogues on twentieth-century British art and artists and twentieth-century publications on the subject of the Grand Tour.

The collection was donated to the Paul Mellon Centre in 2008.

Man sat in study with paintings hung on walls

Sir (Richard) Brinsley Ford, 1992

Digital image courtesy of Derry Moore

Books on the Grand Tour, Including Contemporary Travel Guides

Approximately 100 titles. This material has been fully catalogued on the Library and Photographic Archive catalogue. It is kept in the Library Special Collections under the Classmark ‘FORD’.

A comprehensive collection of books from Sir Brinsley Ford’s library on the Grand Tour to Italy, including his entire collection of contemporary travel accounts from the seventeenth – nineteenth centuries. Some volumes contain marginalia and other provenance markings such as the bookplates of previous owners. The earliest work in the collection is a 1686 edition of The Voyage of Italy, or, A Compleat Journey Through Italy, written by Richard Lassels and first published in 1670. This material is kept in the Library Special Collections under the Classmark ‘FORD’.

The collection was donated to the Paul Mellon Centre in 2017.

selection of leather bound books on a shelf

Books from Sir Brinsley Ford donation, 2017

Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-century Illustrated Books on Travel in Europe

Eleven titles. This material has been fully catalogued on the Library and Photographic Archive catalogue. It is kept in the Library Special Collections under the Classmark FORD.

A collection of illustrated books connected to the Grand Tour, and dating from 1719–1853, from Sir Brinsley Ford’s library. These include: titles relating to the sites and antiquities of Rome; books on views of the Netherlands and Germany; volumes of illustrations of contemporary costume in Italy; and a book on the art of fencing.

The collection was donated to the Paul Mellon Centre in 2024.

The Centre also holds Ford’s archive.

Sir (Richard) Brinsley Ford (1908–1999) was a gentleman-scholar, connoisseur and collector. His publications included 'Drawings of Richard Wilson' (1951) and 'English Taste in the Eighteenth Century' (1956). He was chairman of the National Art Collections Fund (1975–1980).