An Incurable Collector: Sir John Ilott (1884-1973) and his Passion for Prints

Abstract

This thesis examines the print collection of Sir John Ilott (1884-1973) and Ilott’s role as a print collector. Ilott began collecting prints in the early 1920s. In 1952 he gave the majority of his collection to the former National Art Gallery (now Te Papa) and continued to give the Gallery prints almost every year thereafter until his death. Ilott’s gifts allowed the public access to art by some of the greatest Old Masters, such as Dürer and Rembrandt, and instigated the formalisation of one of this country's main public print collections. This thesis documents the Ilott collection for the first time and examines Ilott’s collecting practices, placing them within their wider historical context. Ilott emerges as an example of an early twentieth-century, middle-class antipodean collector who, with a comparatively limited budget and separated by great distance from the major art markets of the world, formed an important and noteworthy collection. The copious documentation that Ilott made about his prints reveals rare insights into the purchases, influences and methods of display that a collector employed when forming a private collection. In addition, the documentation that Ilott made after 1952, when he became the de-facto curator of the National Art Gallery’s print collection, reflects the influences and decisions that determined the development of a public collection. Like many antipodeans of his time, Hon had personal and professional ties to the 'Motherland' and from the outset of his collecting it was to the metropolitan centre of the empire that he looked for advice. He subsequently formed a collection consisting of a selection of prints by old and modern masters who belonged to an early twentieth-century British print canon, which was established and promoted by dealers and contemporary print literature. Regardless of whether he was collecting prints for himself or for the nation, Ilott consistently supported the British canon through his print purchases from the 1920s until his death in 1973 - long after the canon had become defunct.