Alexander Pope, English Poet and Satirist, Antique Engraved Portrait, circa 1870
€ 165
Original antique · The actual sheet photographed · Certificate of authenticity on request · Sold unframed · Worldwide shipping from € 15 (rates)
Date
circa 1870
Mapmaker / artist
Posselwhite (engraver), after Hudson (painter)
Publisher
William Mackenzie, London, Edinburgh and Glasgow
Technique
Steel engraving
Coloring
Uncolored
Sheet size
27 × 18 cm (10.6 × 7.1 in)
Condition
Good
Reference
BG-14343-9
What the condition grades mean
Excellent
Bright and clean, with no faults worth mentioning.
Very good
Only light signs of age, such as faint toning.
Good
Normal signs of age for a sheet of this period: toning, some foxing, small marks or neat old repairs.
Fair
Clear faults such as staining, tears or repairs, priced to match.
Every fault we see is written in the condition note, and the whole sheet is shown uncropped in the photos.
Condition
Good condition for its age. Light toning, a few tiny specks and faint pencil marks to the lower margin. The image is clean and bright. Please review the images for further condition details.
About this sheet
An original steel engraved portrait of the poet Alexander Pope, engraved by Posselwhite after the painting by Hudson and published by William Mackenzie of London, Edinburgh and Glasgow. The plate is lettered "POPE." in open capitals beneath the image, with the credit line "Engraved by Posselwhite from the Picture by Hudson in the possession of His Grace the Duke of Buckingham." directly under the image and the imprint "William Mackenzie, London, Edinburgh & Glasgow." at the foot of the sheet.
Pope is shown half length, turned to the left with his eyes looking past the viewer, wearing a soft cap wound about the head, a loose white neckcloth and a heavy dark gown thrown over his shoulders. The informal dress was the fashion for literary men at home in the early eighteenth century, and the engraver has rendered the folds of the gown and the thin, sharp features of the face with great precision against a dark ground.
Alexander Pope (1688 to 1744) was the leading English poet of his age, the author of The Rape of the Lock, An Essay on Criticism, An Essay on Man and The Dunciad, and the translator of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey. The painting reproduced here is by Thomas Hudson, the most fashionable London portrait painter of the 1740s, and the engraver James Posselwhite was one of the most accomplished portrait engravers of the Victorian period.
William Mackenzie of Glasgow published large illustrated works of history and biography in parts from the middle of the nineteenth century, and portraits of this kind were issued in their volumes on steel, which held the fine lines needed for a face. This is a crisp impression on a generous sheet, and it would frame handsomely for a library, a study or a collection of English writers.
This is an original antique print, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed. Any framed or interior images are shown for presentation and inspiration only, unless the listing explicitly states that the item is sold framed.
