Credit: ©The Royal Society
    Image number: RS.19758

    Portrait of Charles II

    Date
    1661
    Sitter
    Charles II (1630 - 1685, British)
    Creator
    Jan Veenhuysen (1626 - 1685, Dutch) , Engraver
    Object type
    Archive reference number
    Material
    Technique
    Dimensions
    height (print): 110mm
    width (print): 66mm
    Subject
    Content object
    nature
       > landscape
    Description
    Decorative frontispiece to Britannia magna, by Rutger Hermannides (Amsterdam, G. J. Valckenier, 1661). The design includes two figures gesturing towards a landscape view of London, with London Bridge. Below, the figure of Neptune, with fishes and bales. Above, a portrait of King Charles II within an oval and with garlands or swags of fruit and flowers on each side.

    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.136, as Weld’s text gives an account of the Restoration entry of Charles II into London; and in July 1660, his conferring the Royal touch for scrofula, or ‘the King’s evil’, with John Evelyn’s description of the ceremony.

    Inscribed around the portrait: ‘CAROLUS MAGNAE BRITANNIAE REX’. Inscribed upper right: ‘J. veen Huysen fect.’ With imprint details of the original publication.

    Charles II (1630-1685) King of England, Scotland, and Ireland, Royal patron and founder of the Royal Society.
    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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