Grosvenor Prints

What is a proof? A proof is an impression of a print printed before the regular, published edition of the print, making them often rarer. There are several different types of proof in printing: A trial or working proof ; a test to see what work the artist needs to do to the plate. For example:       [This View of the Royal Dock Yard at Chatham...PROOF . ] [Painted by R. Paton, the Figures by J. Mortimer. [right] Engraved by P.C. Canot.] [R. Paton, Wardour Street., Soho, London, 14 February 1775. ] Rare etching, working proof from the unfinished plate, laid paper. Image 450 x 650mm (17¾ x 25½"). Trimmed within plate, and to image on three sides. Centrefold crease and nicks to extremities. An interesting progress proof impression, before the plate was engraved with fine detail. The published state carries the following full title and inscription "TO THE King's most Excellent Majesty, This View of the Royal...

The Houghton Revisited exhibition currently taking place at Houghton Hall in Norfolk provides the opportunity to see some of Robert Walpole's collection displayed in its original setting for the first time since Walpole's famous collection was sold to Catherine the Great of Russia in 1779. Like several other famous collections, the paintings in the Houghton collection were engraved and published, in an ambitious project organized by the Georgian print world's 'Commercial Maecenas' John Boydell, with the result that even after the paintings had left for Russia, they continued to exert great influence on British artists and connoisseurs in engraved form. Here we show a selection of engravings from paintings in the Walpole collection: This full-length portrait of Robert Walpole hung in his 'blue damask bed chamber', although like several of the prints in this list it is not part of the Houghton exhibition: Sir Robert Walpole, afterwards Earl of Orford....

A selection of hoaxes and swindlers- everything from giving birth to rabbits to raising funds for non-existent countries. The Irish writer Richard Head (c.1637-1686?) wrote a fictional autobiography of a professional thief, The English Rogue (1665), to supplement his income (and finance his passion for gambling). But he is not included here for his imaginative gifts so much as the likelihood that he went into hiding to escape arrest due to the adventures 'considered indecent' in his original manuscript, and the 'unblushing plagiary' remaining in the expurgated version. Nonetheless, the first edition sold out within a year, and by 1667 it had reached a fifth edition!   Richard Head. The Globe's thy Studye; for thy boundless mind... I.F. Published 1795 by I. Caulfield. Engraving, 19th century copy of the frontispiece to Head's 'The English Rogue', 160 x 95mm. 6¼ x 3¾". Laid to card. Portrait of Richard Head (1637? - 1686?), auth...

Renaissance artist Sofonisba Anguissola, from a 1561 self-portrait (still at Althorp, as mentioned on the print):   Sofonisba Angosciola. From an original Painting by herself in the Gallery at Althorp. Engraved by Hawksworth. London, Pubd. by Sherwood, Gilbert & Piper, Paternoster Row, Novr. 20, 1827. Engraving from an unidentified publication, sheet 185 x 120mm. 7¼ x 4¾". Trimmed to plate.   Sofonisba Anguissola (c.1532-1625) was an Italian painter of the Renaissance, and one of few female artists mentioned in Vasari's "Lives of Artists." [Ref: 19562]   £80.00   (£96.00 incl.VAT) This early portrait of Rubens was probably engraved from a now-lost original of the artist with his son, executed in the 1620s, of which a copy is now in the Hermitage, St Petersburg: Excellentissimus Dns D. Petrus Paulus Rubenius pictorum Apelles, decus huius saeculi, Orbis miraculum. Aulam Hispanicam, Gal...

The National Portrait Gallery is currently exhibiting a selection of William Nicholson's striking portraits in a temporary display , including these prints of Whistler and Sarah Bernhardt: James McNeill Whistler. William Nicholson. [London, 1899 by William Heinemann]. Lithographic reproduction of a hand-coloured woodcut. Printed area: 245 x 220mm. (9¾ x 8¾"). Foxing to edges; mounted on board as issued. From the folio of twelve portraits by William Nicholson published in 1899. Colin Campbell, 'William Nicholson: The Graphic Works': 22B [Ref: 28326]   £160.00   (£192.00 incl.VAT)   Sarah Bernhardt Lithographic reproduction of a hand-coloured woodcut , 250 x 240mm Portrait of Sarah Bernhardt, published in the New Review in 1897. Colin Campbell, 'William Nicholson: The Graphic Works': 20B £65 (£78 incl. VAT) To see other prints by Nichol...

In the week of Margaret Thatcher's death, a selection of portraits of some of her predecessors as Prime Minister: Sir Robert Walpole [not technically Prime Minister but generally regarded as having held the post de facto 1721-42]:  Sir Robert Walpole, afterwards Earl of Orford. Prime Minister to King George the First, & King George the Second. In the Blue Damask Bed Chamber at Houghton. Vanloo pinxit. James Watson Sculpsit. Published Jan.y 1.st 1788, by John & Josiah Boydell, No.90, Cheapside, London. Mezzotint, very fine with small margins. Plate 502 x 349mm. 19¾ x 13¾". NPG: D39367. Goodwin: 131. CS: 149. [Ref: 27338]   £480 Henry Pelham (1743-54):   The Right Honourable Henry Pelham, Chancellor of the Exchequer, and John Roberts Esq.r. J.Shackleton Pinx.t R.Houston fecit. Printed and Sold by Jos. Edmondson, at his House in Warwick Street, Golden Square, St James's. [n.d., c.1752.] Mezzotint. 395 x...