How many drawings?

How many of the objects listed in the Cambridge University Library volumes were drawn?

For many people the drawings are the most exciting part of the nine volumes of the catalogue. Many of them are exquisite and show, much better than words, exactly how wonderful many of the artefacts in the second Pitt-Rivers' collection were. The two illustrations on this page rather show the two extremes. The first has two wonderful drawings of one object, a bronze figure of a flute-player from Benin in Nigeria, but very little text. The second is a page without any drawings at all where several objects are bundled under one heading (this is from volume 9 when it is clear that Pitt-Rivers' staff were batch-cataloguing).

As is clear from the second illustration on this page, not all the objects listed in the catalogue are drawn. The most excellent drawings are associated with volume four onwards though those of volume 3 are more detailed than those few drawings in volume 1. Volume  9 contains almost no drawings, and volume 1 has far fewer (and much sketchier) drawing than volumes 2 to 8. Leaving quality of reproduction aside, below is the list of artefacts that are drawn:

Volume 1: 1577 objects drawn out of 3541 objects listed [44.5 per cent]

Volume 2: 5560 objects drawn out of 6960 objects listed [79.8 per cent]

Volume 3: 2818 objects drawn out of 2951 objects listed [95.4 per cent]

Volume 4: 681 objects drawn out of 681 objects listed [100 per cent]

Volume 5: 1184 objects drawn out of 1184 objects listed [100 per cent]

Volume 6: 694 objects drawn out of 694 objects listed [100 per cent]

Volume 7: 674 objects drawn out of 674 objects listed [100 per cent]

Volume 8: 832 objects drawn out of 832 objects listed [100 per cent]

Volume 9: 332 objects drawn out of 2898 objects listed [11.4 per cent]

AP, 23 April 2010