Credit: ©The Royal Society
    Image number: RS.19727

    Portrait of Edward Somerset

    Date
    early 19th century
    Sitter
    Creator
    Unknown, Engraver
    Object type
    Archive reference number
    Material
    Technique
    Dimensions
    height (print): 190mm
    width (print): 105mm
    Subject
    Description
    Head and shoulders study of Edward Somerset, looking downward and to the right as viewed. Shown with long natural hair and in classical style dress, wrapped in a loose robe. The central portrait has a decorative border, with a lion head at each corner.

    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.53, as Weld’s text describes Petty’s patent 1648 for a machine to copy writing.

    Inscribed below: ‘THE MARQUIS OF WORCESTER. First Projector of the Steam Engine’. Inscribed in pencil: ‘Edward 2nd Marquis’.

    Edward Somerset 2nd Marquess of Worcester (d.1667) British courtier and scientist, author of The century of inventions (1663).
    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
    <The World>
       > Europe
          > United Kingdom
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