The Layton Collection

THE THOMAS LAYTON TRUST & LAYTON'S COLLECTION

The Life and Times of James Catnach

The Life and Times of James Catnach by Charles Hindley, published by Reeves & Turner: London, 1878. Layton Collection no 1588

Layton was interested in the kind of chap books with rhymes and woodcuts which Catnach produced and there are several volumes about him in the collection. This example includes facsimile pages and claims to include 230 woodcut illustrations. See a digitised copy from another collection here

The Collection

Thomas Layton collected books, coins, and archaeological items (usually described as ‘antiquities’) for 70 years. In that time he had accumulated what has been described as “probably the largest collection of London antiquities ever amassed by a single individual”.

The vast majority of items are believed to have been bought at auctions. Some came to him from his men working on the river. His businesses provided opportunities for finds from dredging, building of bridges and embankments along the banks of the Thames, for which Layton paid good money. Even by the standards of the day Layton kept poor records of where items were found. Despite this, the collection is considered highly important particularly to archaeologists and pre-historians.