Credit: ©The Royal Spciety
    Image number: RS.19725

    Portrait of Sir Thomas Gresham

    Date
    c.1800
    Sitter
    Thomas Gresham (1513 - 1579, British) , Merchant
    Creator
    Joseph Baker (British) , Engraver
    After
    George Vertue (1684 - 1756, British) , Engraver
    Object type
    Archive reference number
    Material
    Technique
    Dimensions
    height (print): 170mm
    width (print): 110mm
    Subject
    Description
    Head and shoulders study of Sir Thomas Gresham. face and body turned to the right as viewed, looking directly to the viewer. Gresham is bearded and wears a cap and ruff collar. Presented within an oval frame on a pedestal.

    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 engraving appears at p.42-43, as Weld’s text describes the early meetings of philosophers at Gresham College from 1658, and the occupation of the building by soldiers in 1659.

    Inscribed below: ‘SIR THOMAS GRESHAM. J. Baker sculp. Islington. From an Engraving by Vertue.’

    Sir Thomas Gresham (c.1518-1579) British mercer, merchant adventurer, founder of the Royal Exchange and Gresham College, London.
    Object history
    Print from Charles Richard Weld's A history of the Royal Society, vol. 1... (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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