William Sandys Wright Vaux

William Sandys Wright Vaux FRS (28 February 1818 – 21 June 1885), was a celebrated English antiquary and numismatist of the 19th century.

Biography Vaux was born in 1818 in Oxford. He was the only son of William Vaux (d. 1844), prebendary of Winchester Cathedral and vicar of Wanborough, Wiltshire. He was educated at Westminster School from 1831 to 1836, and matriculated from Balliol College, Oxford, on 18 March 1836, graduating BA 1840 and M.A. 1842.

In 1841 he entered the department of antiquities of the British Museum, and in January 1861 became the keeper of the department of coins and medals, a post which, owing to ill-health, he resigned in October 1870.

He died at 102 Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, London, on 21 June 1885, having married on 11 July 1861 Louisa, eldest daughter of Francis Rivington of Harley Street, London.

Works Vaux's knowledge was large and varied, more especially in all that related to oriental antiquities. His Nineveh and Persepolis: an Historical Sketch of Ancient Assyria and Persia, with an Account of the recent Researches in those Countries (1850; 4th ed. 1855), did much to popularise the discoveries of Layard and other travellers.

He also wrote: Handbook to the Antiquities in the British Museum: a Description of the Remains of Greek, Assyrian, Egyptian, and Etruscan Art, 1851. Ancient History from the Monuments; Persia from the earliest Period to the Arab Conquest, 1875: new edition by Prof. A. H. Sayce, 1893. Ancient History from the Monuments: Greek Cities and Islands of Asia Minor, 1877.

In 1854 he edited The World Encompassed by Sir Francis Drake for the Hakluyt Society.