Charles William King

Charles William King

Charles William King (born September 5, 1818 in Newport , Monmouthshire ; died March 25, 1888 in London ) was a British private scholar, numismatist and famous collector of gems during the Victorian era .

King studied at Trinity College , Cambridge from 1836 and graduated there in 1840. In 1842 he became a fellow of the college, from 1857 he was a senior fellow. Although he was ordained a deacon in 1845, he never turned to pastoral care.

King laid the foundation for his collection of gems during his stays in Italy from 1845 to 1850. After his return to London, he expanded the collection further, but decided to sell it in 1878, as his dwindling eyesight no longer allowed him to work with the collection. It has been in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York since 1881 .

In his time King was considered one of the best connoisseurs of antique gems and cameos , their manufacturing techniques and materials. His preoccupation with these gems of ancient art made him a specialist in the works of Pausanias and the older Pliny . In addition, it was ancient literature in width familiar, and he gave an illustrated with ancient gems edition of Horace out, translated the Moralia of Plutarch and the theosophical writings of Julian of Henry George Bohn's Classical Library . One of his other areas of interest was early Christian numismatics.

Publications

• Antique gems: their origin, uses, and value as interpreters of ancient history; and as illustrative of ancient art: with hints to gem collectors. J. Murray, London 1860, ( digitized version ).
• The Gnostics and their Remains, ancient and mediæval. D. 1864, ( digitized ; 2nd edition. D. Nutt, London 1887).
• The Handbook of Engraved Gems. Bell & Daldy, London 1866, ( digitized ; 2nd edition. G. Bell, London 1885).
• The Natural History of Precious Stones and Gems and of the Precious Metals. Bell & Daldy, London 1867, ( digitized version ).
• Antique gems and rings. 2 volumes (text, illustrations). Bell and Daldy, London 1872, (digital copies: text , illustrations ).
• Early Christian Numismatics, and other Antiquarian Tracts. Bell & Daldy, London 1873, ( digitized version ).
• Julian the Emperor. Containing Gregory Nazianzen's two Invectives and Libanius' Monody with Julian's extant theosophical works (= Bohn's Classical Library ). G. Bell and Sons, London 1888, ( digitized version ).

literature

• King, Charles William . In: Encyclopædia Britannica . 11th edition. tape 15 : Italy - Kyshtym . London 1911, p. 802–803 (English, full text [ Wikisource ]).
• King, Charles William . In: John Archibald Venn (Ed.): Alumni Cantabrigienses . A Biographical List of All Known Students, Graduates and Holders of Office at the University of Cambridge, from the Earliest Times to 1900. Part 2: From 1752 to 1900 , Volume 4 : Kahlenberg – Oyler . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1951, pp. 40 ( venn.lib.cam.ac.uk Textarchiv - Internet Archive ).
• Martin Dennert: King, Charles William. In: Stefan Heid , Martin Dennert (Hrsg.): Personal Lexicon for Christian Archeology. Researchers and personalities from the 16th to the 21st century . Volume 2: K-Z. Schnell & Steiner, Regensburg 2012, ISBN 978-3-7954-2620-0 , pp. 728-729.