Object Number 1965.2954

Object Name

Print (Mezzotint)

Title

Caroline, Dutchess of Marlborough

Category

Prints and Maps

Credit Line/Donor

Bequest of Henry Francis du Pont

Creator (Role)

Richard Purcell (Mezzotinter)
c.1736-c.1766
References: Chaloner Smith, British Mezzotinto Portraits, vol. 3, p. 1008.

Sir Joshua Reynolds (Painter)
1723-1792

James McArdell (Designer and engraver)
c. 1729-1765

Robert Sayer (Publisher)
1725-02//1794
Sayer became active as a printseller as early as the late 1740s. He built up his stock of copper plates by taking over others’ inventories, first Philip Overton, then James McArdell when he died in 1765. He worked in partnership with John Bennett from around 1774 to 1785, then operated alone again through 1793. When he died in February 1794, the firm (along with Sayer’s stock of plates) were taken over by another London print firm, Laurie & Whittle.

Place of Origin

London, London, England, United Kingdom, Europe

Date

1762-1766

Mark or Signature or Inscription or Label

1. Inscription; Lower right; R Purcell Fecit.
2. Inscription; Lower left; J Reynolds Pinx.\t
3. Inscription; Lower center; Printed for Rob. Sayer near Serjeants Inn Fleet Street.

Subjects

Portrait

Materials

Ink; Paper (laid)

Techniques

Mezzotint, Engraving

Dimensions (inches)

17 (H) , 11.7 (W) , 13.9 (Image H) , 9.6 (Image W)

Dimensions (centimeters)

43.3 (H) , 29.6 (W) , 13.9 (Image H) , 9.6 (Image W)

Measurement Notes

Plate H: 14.1 in. (35.7 cm). Plate W: 9.7 in. (24.7 cm). Chain interval: 2.9-3.2 cm; laid lines: 8 per cm.

Publisher Summary

Sayer, Robert

Place of Publication

London, England, United Kingdom, Europe

State

II

Watermark

"AUVERGNE 1742"

Edition Notes

State II, with the price erased.

Object Description

Text available soon.

Bibliography and Bibliographic Notes

[Book] Fowble, E. McSherry. 1991 To Please Every Taste: Eighteenth-Century Prints from the Winterthur Museum.
• Published: no. 26, pp. 88-9.
[Book] Fowble, E. McSherry. 1987 Two Centuries of Prints in America, 1680-1880 : A Selective Catalogue of the Winterthur Museum Collection.
• Published: no. 59, p. 112.
[Book] Belknap, Waldron Phoenix. 1959 American Colonial Painting: Materials for a History.
• See pp. 274, 315, no. 52.
[Book] The British Museum, et al. Catalogue of Engraved British Portraits Preserved in the Department of Prints and Drawings.
• See p. 168.
[Book] Smith, John Chaloner. 1884 British Mezzotinto Portraits; Being a Descriptive Catalogue of These Engravings from the Introduction of the Art to the early part of the present century. 3. 941-1428.
• See no. 55, p. 1022.