The Layton Collection

THE THOMAS LAYTON TRUST & LAYTON'S COLLECTION

The works of James Gillray

The works of James Gillray, the caricaturist, by Thomas Wright, Chatto & Windus, London, 1874. Layton Collection no 393

This volume introduced Gillray to a wider public than the 1851 folio edition of Gillray’s images of which Wright had been co-author. The book contains two portraits of Gillray and over 400 illustrations. Layton collected numerous illustrated books and books with decorative bindings, covering the arts, engineering and natural sciences.

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.