About this Item
Broadside [429 x 319 mm] designed by Joseph Champion, engraved by Edward Anthony Thorowgood with calligraphic lettering in an ornate foliate border, and with three mezzotint illustrations by Richard Houston. With an ink sketch of a head in profile on the verso. A few short marginal tears and creases and a little soiling and spotting. In generally very good unrestored condition, and with the bonus of a competent large sketch of a man in a hat on the back. The only other impressions of this extraordinary broadside we have been able to trace are in the Bodleian and the British Museum, the latter acquired from Christopher Lennox-Boyd in 2010. It is mentioned by Chaloner Smith in reference to Houston, p.702. The three mezzotints illustrate an onyx stone cut for insertion in a sword hilt, of which the colouration is said to give an image of the Ascension and the handing down of the Law of Moses. In the centre it is shown in double size, with front and back views joined together, and this is flanked by two views showing the stone actual size front and back. The descriptive text, in two columns, goes into detail, describing the images and declaring: "In the Stone, the Drawings and Keeping are true and distinct, the Sky, and all the Colour so Full, soft, and Warm, as to exceed the touch of the finest Pencil, and Belief, 'till seen. It being intirely the Work of Nature, is, by good Judges, esteemed the most peculair Gem in the World; not to be equalled for Beauties, Rarity, and Perfection, by any Jewel, in the possession of the greatest Virtuoso; nor in the choicest Cabinet, or Museum on Earth. The Middle Piece exhibits the whole surface, and is for the Important Subjects represented in it, Worthy to be richly Adorned, as an Emblem of Love & Peace, and preserved in the Cabinet, or Regalia of a true Christian Prince. It has been many Years in the Possession of Jonas Cockerton, in the City of London, where the Buyers of the Print, may freely Compare it, with the Original Stone, untill disposed of". There are Biblical references in the margin, a quote from Paradise Lost and an additional note at the foot: "Those that send for the Print will have a Ticket to see the Stone at large" and "now in the possession of Mr. Savery, 54, Cornhill". It appears to have changed hands more than once as the Lennox-Boyd impression is accompanied by a cutting from a newspaper dated in manuscript 1778 advertising the sale of the stone "By Messrs. Langfords, At their House under the Great Piazza, Covent-garden, on Wednesday the 1st of April, at One o'clock", adding that Cockerton "has left particular directions to his Executors for the disposal of it" and that it is "now in the possession of Adey Bellamy, nephew, late partner, and successor to Jonas Cockerton, in the Poultry aforesaid, where tickets (gratis) may be had to see the stone, prints of it with English and French descriptions". Seller Inventory # ebc7484
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