Henry Sandwith

The Rev. Henry Sandwith of Todwick, near Sheffield, received the boxes of Cypriot antiquities that his brother sent to Yorkshire from 1870. In April 1870 he told the Sheffield Daily Telegraph that his brother Thomas Backhouse Sandwith, British Vice-Consul in Cyprus, proposed to consign boxes of "ancient Cyprian art" to him. The proceeds were to keep the islanders at work digging and so feed them, and he wrote that "no fancy price will be put" on the pottery¹. The goods were first shown at Mrs Parkin's Glass and China Saloon on Sheffield High Street¹.

In August 1870 John Holmes, with Henry's help, displayed part of the collection for sale at the Mechanics' Institute in Leeds; Holmes had written first to "the Rev. Henry S.", and was thereby introduced to the other brothers, among them Humphry Sandwith¹. The Leeds sales were run by Henry Denny, Holmes and Sandwith, who wrote that he would consult Holmes about price reductions for the relief of famine, but would not lower the price of the larger vase further, given the cost of transit and its beauty. On 9 February 1871 Samuel Savage Lewis, who had heard from "Mr Sandwith of Todwick" that the last consignment had gone to Denny, wrote to Denny to ask for prices¹.

He showed "Graeco-Phoenician vases" from Cyprus at a conversazione of the Sheffield Literary and Philosophical Society in February 1874¹. In April 1875 he asked the Society of Antiquaries to return his brother's manuscript on Cypriote pottery so that he could arrange pottery at the Leeds Exhibition³. In 1884 he gave Cypriot items to the Cawthorne Village Museum². His dates of birth and death are not recorded.