Sir Robert Ainslie, 1st Baronet

Ainslie took advantage of his position at Constantinople to amass a collection of ancient coins from Eastern Europe, Asia Minor, and the north of Africa.[3] The most characteristic were described by Abate Domenico Sestini, who dedicated to Ainslie a work which has gone through several editions, entitled Lettere e Dissertazioni Numismatiche sopra alcune Medaglie rare della Collezione Ainslieana, 4 vols. 4to, Leghorn, 1789–90,[3] a fifth volume of which, with the enlarged title e di altri Musei, appeared at Rome in 1794, and four others, referring to particular collections, were published at Berlin in 1804–6. Sestini continued his exposition of the Ainslie collection in a smaller work, and more special in its scope, entitled Dissertazione sopra alcune Monete Armene del Principi Rupinensi della Collezione Ainslieana, 4to, Leghorn, 1790. This work is at present bound up with a copy of the first four volumes of the Lettere e Dissertazioni, which, according to an inscription, probably autographic, on the fly-leaf, was "presented from Sr Robt Ainslie, 5 June 1795," to the British Museum. Another volume of Sestini's is entitled Descriptio Numorum Veterum ex Museis Ainslie, Bellini, Bondacca, Borgia, Leipzig, 1796. Ainslie had been the 'Mæcenas' of Sestini's dedication of the Lettere e Dissertazioni of 1789; seven years later, in the preface to the Descriptio, he was a malignant speculator and trader in antiquities.

Paintings of Telmessus by Luigi Mayer, commissioned by Ainslie during their excursion along the Turkish coast:

Ainslie's researches embraced antiquities of various kinds, objects of natural history, and illustrations of the East and its current life. Ainslie was a friend of important German orientalist artist Luigi Mayer and before departing Turkey travelled with him along the coast. He commissioned Mayer to produce drawings of many landmarks en route include the former settlements of ancient Lycia, such as The Harbor at Cacamo and ancient Telmessus (Fethiye).[7] Mayer also drew other places in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Balkans for Ainslie and in his time visited Wallonia, the Ionian Islands and Egypt, all documented in his paintings. Three volumes of drawings were published, in the words of the dedication, 'under his auspices.' The first of these is entitled Views in Egypt, from the original drawings in possession of Sir Robert Ainslie, taken during his Embassy to Constantinople by Luigi Mayer; engraved by and under the direction of Thomas Milton; with historical Observations and incidental Illustrations of the Manners and Customs of the Natives of that Country, eleph. fol. London, 1801.[3] This was followed by two bilingual volumes, English and French, entitled Views in the Ottoman Empire, chiefly in Caramania, &c., 1803; and Views in Palestine, &c., 1804. The coloured plates in these volumes are ninety-six in number; and fifty-four were afterwards given in the first edition, and seventy-one in the second edition, of Views in Turkey in Europe and Turkey in Asia, London, 1810.[3] A selection from all these appeared in 1833 as a group of engravings, uncoloured and of smaller size, with the title of A Series of Twenty-four Views illustrative of the Holy Scriptures.

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: "Ainslie, Robert (1730?-1804)". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.