85 Between 1842 and 1845 Henry wrote letters to various infl uential fi gures in an unsuccessful campaign for the establishment of a National Museum of Economic Ethnology. At some point before 1837, Henry began to catalog the family collection, recording the dates of acquisition and sources in a small book of more than fi ve hundred loose pages of neat miniscule script. Classifi ed by type, entire categories of objects are missing from the catalog, indicating that the work was either never fi nished or is incomplete today, but it is a fascinating insight into an amateur collector in the early nineteenth century. It reveals that the Cumings bought from several sources. The auctioneer J. C. Stevens held regular auctions of ethnographic artifacts throughout the nineteenth century and these included the sales of several entire collections at which the Cumings made purchases. At the sale of the Surrey Museum in 1836 they acquired antiquities and natural history specimens. They must have been very familiar with this museum, which was located on the grounds of the Surrey Zoological Gardens, not far from their home. In 1839, at the sale of the Bavarian Princess Christina of Waldeck and Pyrmont, they bought natural history specimens and South American artifacts. In 1851 at the sale of the collection of Thomas Dawson of Grasmere at Christie’s, their acquisitions included Inuit snow goggles, a Sri Lankan mask, and a Moluccas shield. In 1834 Dr. Andrew Smith led a team of thirty-four into the interior of southern Africa on behalf of the recently founded Cape of Good Hope Association for Exploring Central Africa. After a nineteen-month absence they returned to Cape Town laden with natural history specimens and artifacts, many of which were exhibited in 1836 in the Egyptian Hall on Piccadilly. At the subsequent sale of the collection by J. C. Stevens in 1838 (fi g. 12), the Cumings purchased one hundred and twenty objects. Another group of artifacts from southern Africa was collected by Wilhelm Gueinzius, the pioneer German naturalist and apothecary, who traveled to Africa in 1838 and whose plant collection was sent to Leipzig. A fi ne group of about fi fty items from Guyana was purchased at a sale at the Cosmorama on Regent Street in 1840 (fi gs. 30–32). Collected by Robert Schomburgk, the German explorer sent on an expedition to Guyana by the Royal Geographical Society from 1838–1839, the expedition’s artifacts were sold upon their return to London. Following a second trip to Guyana in 1845, Schomburgk received a knighthood from Queen Victoria. Other collectors were among the Cumings’ friends FIG. 12 (above): J. C. Stevens 1838 auction catalog for South African artifacts collected by the Cape of Good Hope Association for Exploring Central Africa. Courtesy of the Cuming Museum. FIG. 13 (top right): Ear ornaments. South Africa. Before 1838. Wood. Cuming Museum, C6128–6132. Purchased on 6 June 1838 at the sale of the South African Museum. FIG. 14 (right): Cup with fi gure carved in relief. Zulu. South Africa. Before 1837. Wood. H: 26 cm. Cuming Museum, C1336. Purchased by Richard Cuming at the sale of the South African Association in 1837. FIG. 15 (above): Headrest. Zulu, South Africa. Before 1838. Wood. L: 38 cm. Cuming Museum, C4808. Collected by Wilhelm Gueinzius between 1845 and 1848. The Cuming Museum
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