Über die Sammlung
The holdings of the August Kestner Collection include a genre known in technical terminology as tessellations. These are small mark-like objects in different shapes (round, figurative) and different materials (bronze, lead, bone or stone). Although small and inconspicuous in appearance, this genre attracted the interest of collectors and researchers early on, so that the first treatises on it were written as early as the end of the 17th century.
August Kestner paid relatively much attention to his collection of around 200 specimens, which is reflected in several diary entries and letters, among other things. This is all the more surprising since remarks on the acquisition of other, perhaps more splendid objects are almost not to be found in his correspondence.
By 1836, the collection had already grown to such an extent that August wanted to present it to his colleagues on the occasion of the 5th anniversary of the founding of the 'Instituto' in a lecture supplemented with drawings and the originals themselves. He found interested people among the experts with whom he planned a publication. Prof. Dr. Wieseler from Göttingen received the necessary drawings and Henzen also approved of this undertaking. However, it did not come to fruition.