Walpole acquired this small book with 42 sketches of heads and other drawings at the sale of George Vertue's effects on 18 March 1757. Afterwards, he kept it with his rarest books in the Glass Closet at Strawberry Hill. George Vertue became the official engraver to the Society of Antiquaries in 1717, a position he retained for nearly forty years. During that time, he was gathering materials for a history of the fine arts in England.