Edwin Henry Lawrence

Edwin Henry Lawrence (1819 to 1891) paid for Alessandro Palma di Cesnola's excavations in Cyprus and then owned what they found⁴. A London financier and Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, he made his offer in 1876: money to dig on Alessandro's own account, on condition that a collection of importance be offered to England before any other country^1,3. Masson, citing a notice of 1883, adds that Lawrence already knew Luigi Palma di Cesnola and had bought objects from him¹. The digging stopped after the British occupation, when private excavation was banned in 1878. Alessandro returned to London in May 1879 and married Lawrence's daughter¹.

The "Lawrence-Cesnola collection", some 14,000 objects, was shown at 84 Holland Park. Samuel Birch and Charles Newton were invited to see it, but a loan to the British Museum for a temporary exhibition was not concluded, and the British Museum and the South Kensington Museum declined to buy^2,3. Lawrence wrote the preface to the photographic album of 1880 and 1881, in which he stated his hope that a public body would acquire the collection^1,2.

In April 1884 he sold ten inscribed stones to the British Museum¹. Sotheby, Wilkinson and Hodge sold the collection on 1 June 1883 (over 1,000 lots), 15 May 1884, 12 March 1888 and 25 April 1892, the last after his death¹. Buyers included Augustus Pitt Rivers, who took 693 items according to Ulbrich and Kiely². The sources differ on the proceeds: Masson, from the annotated catalogues, gives about 975 pounds to Lawrence and his family, while Ulbrich and Kiely give around 2,500 pounds for the 14,000 items^1,2.