Buyers collecting their purchases after a sale of insects. Photogravure by Hanfstaengl after E. Armitage.

"In 1878 Armitage exhibited 'After an entomological sale, Beati possidentes', in which he represented himself in a sale room rejoicing over a fresh acquisition for his collection of insects, in company with his friends Calderon, Hodgson, Winkfield, and others." (Dictionary of national biography, s.v Armitage). The sale room was that of Henry Stevens (1843-1925), at 38 King Street, St James's, London: "Henry took out his first auctioneer's licence in 1863, and under his ownership Stevens remained the major British clearing house for natural history collections for the rest of the century and beyond. ... the who's who of scientists, collectors, and curators who frequented the saleroom floor ... made many an auction as much a social and scientific gathering as a commercial event" (Michael P. Cooper, 'Stevens family (per. c.18301925)', Oxford dictionary of national biography, Oxford University Press, 2004). See further Allingham loc. cit.: "Armitage, the Academician, bought up many specimens for models for his Academy picture, "After an entomological sale", painted 1878 ... the idea of the scene was taken from the sale of the Brown beetles [by Stevens in 1877]"

Salmon, loc. cit.: "The figures are presumably all portraits; those on the far left and right are thought to be F. Buchanan White and J.W. Douglas. The central figure may be Edwin Newman. Armitage, a Fellow of the RES, painted himself in the right foreground with back to viewer"

Darby, loc. cit., notes that the painter Edward Armitage "possessed a considerable collection of exotic coleoptera and was one of the oldest members of the Entomological Society" and that "The present whereabouts of the picture are unknown ... (MD 7.01)"

1 print : photogravure ; sheet 31.7 x 47 cm

After an entomological sale. Beati possidentes. E. Armitage pinx. ; Gravure Hanfstaengl, Munich

E. G. Allingham, A romance of the rostrum, being the business life of Henry Stevens … together with some account of famous sales , London 1924, p. 151

Michael A. Salmon et al., The Aurelian legacy : British butterflies and their collectors, Colchester 2000, p. 367 (reproduced)

Michael Darby, Biographical dictionary of British coleopterists, website 2002, http://www.coleopterist.org.uk/biogdict/a.htm

Wellcome Collection 11921i

A file of reproductions of paintings by E. Armitage is held at the Witt Library, London, but the painting from which the present print is assumed to derive was not among them on 22 November 1993. An enquiry to the Entomology Library, Natural History Museum, London, in 1994, also failed to elicit information about the painting's whereabouts