Recovering a Patrimony

In any large family some individual family members will care more about their heritage than others. This is not a critique, simply an observed truth.

In previous generations, some family members were seemingly less attached to their heritage and sold many things. I will probably never have a true accounting of all the items that have gone missing. I say missing as opposed to lost because I hope to recover some items that may be in flea markets, antique shops, or book sellers just waiting to be discovered.

To that end last month I purchased three framed engravings by Charles Philippe de Büren who lived in the latter half of the 18th century. He was an artist who focused on nature themes and did many engravings of animals and pastureland. The seller acquired the engravings 5 years ago at an antique flea market in Paris, and recently posted them on eBay.

The engravings done by Charles Philippe, most likely from the 1780s