Credit: ©The Royal Society
    Image number: RS.19083

    Portrait of Antoni van Leeuwenhoek

    Date
    1813
    Sitter
    Antoni van Leeuwenhoek (1632 - 1723, Dutch) , Naturalist
    Creator
    John Chapman (British) , Engraver
    Object type
    Archive reference number
    Material
    Technique
    Dimensions
    height (print): 220mm
    width (print): 135mm
    Subject
    Description
    Head and shoulders portrait of Antoni van Leeuwenhoek, wearing a wig, robe and cravat. Presented in an oval. With a vignette below, showing the scientist seated at a table upon which rests a compound microscope and a drawing. There is a window behind and a chair in front of the table.

    Plate from a grangerized copy of A history of the Royal Society, with memoirs of the Presidents…by Charles Richard Weld (London, John W. Parker, 1848). In this edition, the original two volumes were extended to eight volumes with the addition of extra-illustrations and documents, by Alexander Meyrick Broadley.

    The print appears at p.244 in volume 2 of the adapted set of Weld’s History. Weld’s text describes Leeuwenhoek’s communications to the Royal Society, from 1673.

    Inscribed below: ‘LEEUWENHOEK. London Published Feb 26 1813 by G Jones. J Chapman sculp.’

    Antoni van Leeuwenhoek (1632-1723) Dutch naturalist, was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1680.
    Object history
    Print from Charles Richard Weld's 2 volume A history of the Royal Society... (London, John W. Parker, 1848) grangerized by the writer and collector Alexander Meyrick Broadley (1847–1916) into 8 volumes, adding illustrative material and manuscript items to Weld's text. The books were initially owned by Ludwig Mond FRS (1839–1909), and according to an inscription by his son Robert Ludwig Mond FRS (1867–1938) they were intended for presentation to the Society. This eventually happened in late 1959, the donor being the politician Harry Nathan (1889–1963), Lord Nathan of Churt.
    Related fellows
    Charles Richard Weld (1813 - 1869, British) , Author
    Associated place
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