Frank McClean (1837–1904) was not only a civil engineer, astronomer and pioneer of objective prism spectrography, but also an accomplished and systematic collector of ancient and medieval art. McClean's collections, which were left to the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, on his death, were at that time the most notable bequest since the Museum's foundation. They included illuminated manuscripts, early printed books, and the ancient and medieval decorative objects described in this catalogue. The medieval applied arts in particular were of immense value to the Museum's holdings, including extremely rare items not hitherto represented there. This catalogue, prepared in 1911–12 by O. M. Dalton, assistant keeper of British and medieval antiquities at the British Museum, lists over 140 items: ivory carvings, enamels, jewellery, gems and a smaller number of Chinese, Japanese and Egyptian objects.
