Around Shakespeare
In relation to the exhibition 'Shakespeare: staging the world' currently on at the British Museum, we've put together the a brief list of prints from our stock relating to the themes explored in this exhibition:
Shakespeare from the First Folio Edition.
J. Swaine sc.
[n.d. c.1824.]
Etching and engraving. 178 x 114mm. 7 x 4½". [Ref: 24552] £50.00 (£60.00 incl.VAT)
A 19th century copy of the first folio portrait, of which the exhibition catalogue states: 'The famous engraved 'portrait' by Martin Droeshout is one of only two verified likenesses of Shakespeare (the other is his tomb monument). Neither is a life portrait: [Ben] Jonson called the engraving a good likeness but exhorted the reader to "look/ Not on his picture, but his book".'
To get an idea of what visiting London in Shakespeare's time was like, the catalogue suggests following in the footsteps of Philip Hentzner, a German lawyer who visited London in 1599 (the year of the Globe's opening) and published an account of his visit in Nuremberg in 1612. One of the principal attractions of London according to Hentzner was the Royal Exchange, which 'has a great effect, whether you consider the stateliness of the building, the assemblage of different nations, or the quantities of merchandise'.
The best visual record of the Exchange at that time was Hogenburg's print, made around 1569, and still considered significant enough in 1804 for a copy of that print to be published.
This building was destroyed in the Great Fire, but other prints of the building as it appeared in Shakespeare's time were produced by Hollar and Vertue:
On the subject of melancholy, a miniature of the poet and philosopher Lord Herbert of Cherbury (by Isaac Oliver, c.1613-4) is included in the exhibition. An engraving of this potrait was used as the frontispiece to Horace Walpole's Life of Cherbury:
The Gunpowder Plot. ~ November 5th. 1605. ~ The Principal Conspiratos. Copied from a Print, published at the time. (A.D. 1605.) Under which is an Explanation in Latin_ translated as follows:-…[lettered a-h each portrait]… Fac-simile of the Letter, written to Lord Mounteagle, which led to the discovery of the Gunpowder Plot. [letter.] The Original Letter is preserved in the State Paper Office. | The Writer of this Letter has been long supposed to be have been T. Mounteagle's sister Mary, who was the wife of Thomas Habingdon…after which follows much matter tending equally to connect her with Catesby, (who has her Priest,) Tresham, (a connexion by marriage,) and others of the Conspirators.
Copied. Printed & Published by J. Netherclift, Lithographer, 23, King William St. West Strand, London. [n.d. c.1835.
[Ref: 15293] £140.00 (£168.00 incl.VAT)
The conspirators were portrayed in a contemporary continental print, displayed in the exhibition, and that print continued to be the favoured representation of Guy Fawkes, as seen in this 19th century copy.
The reign of James I coincided with developments in the shaping of British identity such as the publication of John Speed's atlas The Theatre of the Empire of Great Britaine in 1611, dedicated to the king:
The Achievement of Our Soveraigne King James as he Nowe Beareth With the Armes of Severall kings that have aunciently raigned within his nowe Dominions.
Jodocus Hondius Flander cælavit Anno Domini 1614.
[London: Sudbury & Humble, c.1614.]
Coloured engraving. 380 x 245mm.
The dedication to James I from Speed's important atlas, 'The Theatre of the Empire of Great Britaine', containing a large Royal Crest and 24 smaller armorials around the edges.
[Ref: 5691] £220.00
William Camden, 'author of the bible of British archaeology, Britannia' also played a key role in the shaping of this identity. This engraving reproduces the 1609 portrait by Gheeraerts in the exhibition:
Giulielm Camden Clarenti. Pralecturae Historicae Fundator Munific. Hic oculos similesq vultus, hic ora lueri Poteris, nec ultra haec artifex quivit manus Annales ipsum celebrisq Britannia monstrant Perenniora saxo et aere [Greek Cyrillic.] Quisquis et Historiae Cathedram hanc conscenderit esto Benignitatis usque monumentum loquax.
Marcus Gherrardis pinxit. Loder del. Engrav'd by James Basire 1789.
Publish'd as the Act directs March 25, 1789.
Engraving, with large margins. Plate 330 x 222mm. 13 x 8¾".
[Ref: 24798] £130.00 (£156.00 incl.VAT)
The copy of the first folio exhibited at the British Museum came from the collection of Thomas Arundel, who was in addition 'perhaps the first English art collector in the European model'. Amongst his treasures was the 'Arundel head' discovered in Smyrna and now in the British Museum, which was considered in Arundel's time to represent a Macedonian king, but was thought in the eighteenth century (then in the collection of Richard Mead) to portray Homer:
Homerus. De Aereo Capite olim penes illustriss. Comitem Arundellium, nunc in Museo Richardi Mead. M.D.
Wood del. B. Baron sculp.
[n.d., c.1750.]
Etching, 360 x 250mm. 14¼ x 9¾". A fine impression with full margins.
[Ref: 22356] £230.00
In the twentieth century opinion swayed towards it representing Sophocles, but perhaps we'll never really know.
Finally, regarding Shakespeare's legacy, a portrait of David Garrick, 'the greatest Bardolater of the eighteenth century', after Robert Pine's painting of around 1765. Here he holds the edition of Shakespeare by his friend and former teacher Dr Johnson:
David Garrick Esq.r
Engraved by Rob.t Cooper from a Picture by Rob.t Edge Pine.
Published May 8. 1815, fro the Proprietor by E. Baldwyn, Catherine Street, London, and R. Cooper, Mornington Place, Hampstead Road.
A rare stipple and etching, large margins. Plate 375 x 273mm. 14¾ x 10¾".
In this way, Pine neatly combines Garrick's affiliations with two of Britain's greatest men of letters.
Shakespeare from the First Folio Edition. J. Swaine sc.
[n.d. c.1824.]
Etching and engraving. 178 x 114mm. 7 x 4½". [Ref: 24552] £50.00 (£60.00 incl.VAT)
A 19th century copy of the first folio portrait, of which the exhibition catalogue states: 'The famous engraved 'portrait' by Martin Droeshout is one of only two verified likenesses of Shakespeare (the other is his tomb monument). Neither is a life portrait: [Ben] Jonson called the engraving a good likeness but exhorted the reader to "look/ Not on his picture, but his book".'
To get an idea of what visiting London in Shakespeare's time was like, the catalogue suggests following in the footsteps of Philip Hentzner, a German lawyer who visited London in 1599 (the year of the Globe's opening) and published an account of his visit in Nuremberg in 1612. One of the principal attractions of London according to Hentzner was the Royal Exchange, which 'has a great effect, whether you consider the stateliness of the building, the assemblage of different nations, or the quantities of merchandise'.
The best visual record of the Exchange at that time was Hogenburg's print, made around 1569, and still considered significant enough in 1804 for a copy of that print to be published.
 |
| Howlett after Hogenburg, £45 + VAT |
 |
| Wenceslaus Hollar, £60 + VAT |
 |
| Vertue, £130 + VAT |
On the subject of melancholy, a miniature of the poet and philosopher Lord Herbert of Cherbury (by Isaac Oliver, c.1613-4) is included in the exhibition. An engraving of this potrait was used as the frontispiece to Horace Walpole's Life of Cherbury:
Edward Lord Herbert of Chirbury.
Ja. Oliver pinx. Ant. Walker sculp.
[London, 1792.]
Engraved frontispiece to an edition of Horace Walpole's 'The Life of Edward Lord Herbert of Cherbury'. 205 x 250mm, 8 x 9¾".
[Ref: 27097] £65.00 (£78.00 incl.VAT)
Ja. Oliver pinx. Ant. Walker sculp.
[London, 1792.]
Engraved frontispiece to an edition of Horace Walpole's 'The Life of Edward Lord Herbert of Cherbury'. 205 x 250mm, 8 x 9¾".
[Ref: 27097] £65.00 (£78.00 incl.VAT)
'All the elements of melancholy are here, together with the idealized pastoral location with shady trees and a brook [...] the most striking element of this portrait, however, is the super-real representation of the trees and their bark, the vivid colouring of the woodland clearing and the sense of aerial distance, inspired by Dutch landscape painting and quite new in English art. These visual innovations find their echo in the vivid descriptions of landscape in the plays of Shakespeare and the poetry of Edmund Spenser' (ex. cat.)
One of the major London events to coincide with Shakespeare's career was the 'spectacular fiasco of the Gunpowder Plot [...] a Catholic act of terrorism allegedly designed to blow up the king [James I], his family, Parliament and the judiciary [which] provided the essential backdrop to Shakespeare's Macbeth [...] this is the only time that Shakespeare use the word 'combustion', and it is in this play that he introduces the word 'assassination into English literature'.
Copied. Printed & Published by J. Netherclift, Lithographer, 23, King William St. West Strand, London. [n.d. c.1835.
[Ref: 15293] £140.00 (£168.00 incl.VAT)
The conspirators were portrayed in a contemporary continental print, displayed in the exhibition, and that print continued to be the favoured representation of Guy Fawkes, as seen in this 19th century copy.
The reign of James I coincided with developments in the shaping of British identity such as the publication of John Speed's atlas The Theatre of the Empire of Great Britaine in 1611, dedicated to the king:
Jodocus Hondius Flander cælavit Anno Domini 1614.
[London: Sudbury & Humble, c.1614.]
Coloured engraving. 380 x 245mm.
The dedication to James I from Speed's important atlas, 'The Theatre of the Empire of Great Britaine', containing a large Royal Crest and 24 smaller armorials around the edges.
[Ref: 5691] £220.00
William Camden, 'author of the bible of British archaeology, Britannia' also played a key role in the shaping of this identity. This engraving reproduces the 1609 portrait by Gheeraerts in the exhibition:
Marcus Gherrardis pinxit. Loder del. Engrav'd by James Basire 1789.
Publish'd as the Act directs March 25, 1789.
Engraving, with large margins. Plate 330 x 222mm. 13 x 8¾".
[Ref: 24798] £130.00 (£156.00 incl.VAT)
The copy of the first folio exhibited at the British Museum came from the collection of Thomas Arundel, who was in addition 'perhaps the first English art collector in the European model'. Amongst his treasures was the 'Arundel head' discovered in Smyrna and now in the British Museum, which was considered in Arundel's time to represent a Macedonian king, but was thought in the eighteenth century (then in the collection of Richard Mead) to portray Homer:
Wood del. B. Baron sculp.
[n.d., c.1750.]
Etching, 360 x 250mm. 14¼ x 9¾". A fine impression with full margins.
[Ref: 22356] £230.00
In the twentieth century opinion swayed towards it representing Sophocles, but perhaps we'll never really know.
Finally, regarding Shakespeare's legacy, a portrait of David Garrick, 'the greatest Bardolater of the eighteenth century', after Robert Pine's painting of around 1765. Here he holds the edition of Shakespeare by his friend and former teacher Dr Johnson:
Engraved by Rob.t Cooper from a Picture by Rob.t Edge Pine.
Published May 8. 1815, fro the Proprietor by E. Baldwyn, Catherine Street, London, and R. Cooper, Mornington Place, Hampstead Road.
A rare stipple and etching, large margins. Plate 375 x 273mm. 14¾ x 10¾".
In this way, Pine neatly combines Garrick's affiliations with two of Britain's greatest men of letters.
