Augustus Wollaston Franks

Augustus Wollaston Franks MA, FRS, Dir.SA, FRGS, FGS
Born	1826
Died	1897
Residence	The British Museum and 55 Upper Seymour street Portman Square [1868] The British Museum and 103 Victoria St West SW [1869] 123 Victoria Street, SW [1897]
Occupation	academic museum work
Society Membership membership ESL, AI Ordinary Fellow - life compounder left 1897 deceased elected_ESL 1863.12.08 elected_AI 1863 clubs Athenaeum Club societies Society of Antiquaries Royal Society Royal Geographical Society Geological Society Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce

Notes

Office Notes

ESL Council 1865-66 Member [retiring]
ESL Council 1869-70 Member

AI Council 1872 Member
AI Council 1873 Member
AI Council 1875 Vice President
AI Council 1876 Vice President
AI Council 1877 Vice President
AI Council 1878 Member
AI Council 1879 Member
AI Council 1880 Member
AI Council 1881 Member
AI Council 1882 Member
AI Council 1883 Member
AI Council 1884 Member
AI Council 1885 Member
AI Council 1886 Member
AI Council 1887 Member
AI Council 1888 Member

House Notes

Director of the Society of Antiquaries
death noted in report of the council for 1897
Brabrook's presidential address 1898: I pass on to the record of our losses by death during the year. That of Sir Augustus Wollaston Franks, great as it is,- I need not now refer to at length, the brief and inadequate observations which I made on it at the time having already appeared in the Journal. I will merely place on record the facts that he joined the Ethnological Society in 1863, was elected a member of its Council in 1865, and became a Vice- President of this Institute in 1874. For a long time he regularly attended our meetings, took an active part in the proceedings, and made a great number of communications to our Journal. His primary allegiance was due, however, to the Society of Antiquaries, which he had joined on the 15th December, 1853, and in which for many years he played a most distinguished part. His first contribution to "Archaeologia" vas made on the very day he became a Fellow, under the title, Observations on an Ancient Fibula."

Notes From Elsewhere

Sir Augustus Wollaston Franks KCB (20 March 1826 – 21 May 1897) was an English antiquary and museum administrator. Franks was described by Marjorie Caygill, historian of the British Museum, as "arguably the most important collector in the history of the British Museum, and one of the greatest collectors of his age"

Member of the Athenaeum from 1857

Publications

External Publications

· Book of Ornamental Glazing Quarries,’ London, 1849.
· ‘Examples of Ornamental Art in Glass and Enamel,’ 1858.
· ‘Himyaritic Inscriptions from Southern Arabia,’ 1863.
· ‘Catalogue of Oriental Porcelain and Pottery,’ 1876 and 1878.
· ‘Japanese Pottery,’ 1880.
· ‘Catalogue of a Collection of Continental Porcelain,’ 1896.
He also edited John Mitchell Kemble's Horæ Ferales (1863); and Edward Hawkins's Medallic Illustrations of British History, 1885.[2] In writing about British Celtic art he introduced the term "Late Celtic period", but its application proved contentious,[2] and was considered somewhat misleading in the European picture of Celtic art.[11

House Publications

Photographs of skulls and objects from the Caucasus JAI iii 176, 177
Stone implements from Honduras exhibited by Capt. Melford Campbell JAI vi 37-40
On a tattooed man from Burmah JAI ii 228-233

Related Material Details

RAI Material

roy ellen

Other Material

Franks purchased over 20,000 important objects for the British Museum's collections