UNPUBLISHED SOURCES

The extensive records of the Court of Chancery contain dozens of lengthy descriptions of disputes between painters, engravers, print publishers and others in the 17th and 18th centuries. They are a rich and largely untapped source for, although some architectural historians have used them, art historians overlooked them thus far (Greg Smith's recent publication of Thomas Girtin's probate inventory is an exception that demonstrates the great potential of this resource). Chancery litigation often comprises not only the direct testimony of the parties, but also appended evidence such as inventories and financial accounts.

These are a hugely underused resource in 18th and 19th century art history. Scholars could work with the Bank of England, Drummonds and/or Hoare's bank to publish lists of artists' accounts and selected transcripts of accounts to highlight the usefulness of the material.

There are about 800 unpublished letters to and from Joseph Farington (1747-1821) RA at Windsor, from the 1780s onwards, among much other unpublished Farington material. Many of them deal with family and other matters, or are not individually substantial; but collectively they will contain a huge amount of material that complements his well-known diaries.

John Thorpe (1726-92) was a Catholic priest who lived in Rome from the 1760s to his death in 1792. His large correspondence with Lord Arundell of Wardour represents a rich source of largely unpublished material on art and architecture in Italy and Britain in the later 18th century.

Aydua Scott-Elliot (1909-2003) produced a typescript catalogue of Paul Oppé's (1878-1957) collection, copies of which are now at the Tate and the Paul Mellon Centre. While the Tate acquired most of Oppé's collection in 1996, they have not yet published it in catalogue form and Scott-Elliot's catalogue incorporates much information from Oppé's wider archive.

Leonard Duke (1890-1971) was one of the main 20th century collectors of English drawings, both historic and contemporary. His 9-volume catalogue survives in a unique photocopy in the British Museum department of prints and drawings, and describes 5-6,000 items. Duke's entries are highly informative and offer an important window onto 20th century connoisseurship in drawings.

Dr John Percy (1718-89) is considered to be the first collector of early English watercolours, that is to say, those from the era before Turner. Percy's own catalogue of his collection contains many notes of late 19th century sales and collectors and is a great window on 19th century scholarship of drawings.

This is a general notice to draw attention to the very extensive archives of 20th century British art, little of which has been published, held at Tate Britain.

The records of the UK's first exhibiting society survive pretty much in their entirety and are far more extensive than for the RA in its first decades, comprising minutes, accounts, letters, petitions, etc. Their publication was one of the earliest goals of the Walpole Society.

The minute books and apprenticeship records of the Painter Stainers Company are core records in the history of painting in the 17th century. While the apprentice records have been published (in 2003, by Cliff Webb for the Society of Genealogists), the minute books (which start in 1623) remain more obscure, though cited in various places.

The Walpole Society published the minute books and all associated records of the RA for its first quarter century, under Reynolds's presidency, but later records remain unpublished.

Part of William Upcott's collection, the RA calls the papers of portrait painter and miniaturist Ozias Humphry RA (1742-1810) "one of the most important sources for any study of artistic circles in the second half of the eighteenth century."

An art collector called James Sotheby kept notebooks with detailed records of the various pictures he bought in London during the later 17th century and they are an important source for the history of the art market. His son also made contemporary transcriptions.

Ozias Humphrey transcribed a notebook with remarks by an Irish portrait painter about studio practice in the late 17th century London art world.