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PREFACE

TO   THE   REVISED   EDITION.

The Editor of this manual avails himself of the opportunity afibrded by
the publication of the first revised Edition, to state very briefly some of
the circumstances which rendered the first catalogue imperfect. It was
compiled, in advance of the opening of the Exhibition, from the meagre
material afforded by the original lists sent in by the various commissioners
at home and abroad, and embracing generally only the name of the
Exhibitor, and an indefinite representation of the object or objects he
proposed to exhibit. These were sometimes so illegibly written, or so
obscured by translation into English, as to embarrass greatly the labors
of the Editor. The first catalogue, however, notwithstanding these
obstacles, was a reasonably correct transcript from the proposals of the
contributors to the Exhibition. Its chief imperfection has arisen from the
failure of numerous parties to carry out their proposals. Hundreds of
those whose names appear upon the catalogue, have either altogether
withheld their proposed contributions, or delayed them until weeks after
the opening. The absence of these objects has created great confusion to
the visitor in the use of the catalogue, which, however, has daily grown
more and more correct up to this day.

The absence of the lists of Statuary, Paintings, and objects of Art

generally, was another serious imperfection in the first edition, which,

- however much  to  be  regretted, was  utterly unavoidable—since  these

works must be inspected before they could be catalogued with any degree

of correctness.

The present edition will be found, it is believed, free from those imper¬
fections. The task of revision has not been a light one. It has involved
both toil and care for several weeks, during which every available source
of correction has been assiduously resorted to. The frequent erroneous
classification of objects in the first edition, arising from obscure invoices
or ambiguous term.s in the  description of goods,  has been  diligently

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