Credit: ©The Royal Society
    Image number: RS.20000

    Portrait of Jonathan Swift

    Date
    1829
    Sitter
    Jonathan Swift (1667 - 1745, British) , Writer
    Creator
    Joseph John Jenkins (1811 - 1885, British) , Engraver
    After
    George Vertue (1684 - 1756, British) , Engraver
    Object type
    Archive reference number
    Material
    Technique
    Dimensions
    height (print): 185mm
    width (print): 105mm
    Subject
    Description
    Half-length portrait of Jonathan Swift, in clerical robes, with wig and bands, head turned to the left as viewed. With a decorative framing device featuring swagging, classical figures, and the paraphernalia of the arts.

    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.457 in volume 4 of the adapted set of Weld’s History.

    Inscribed below: ‘JONATHAN SWIFT D.D.’ and with a facsimile signature. The print has been cropped, losing the original attribution statement, which read: ‘Engraved by J. Jenkins from a print by G. Vertue. London: Published by Thomas Kellly, 17 Paternoster Row, 1829.’

    Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) writer and Dean of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin, author of Travels into several parts of the World…by Lemuel Gulliver [known as Gulliver’s Travels], 1726, which satirized the natural philosophers of the Royal Society.
    Object history
    Print from Charles Richard Weld's A history of the Royal Society, vol. 4... (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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