Acquired From: Leen Helmink
Colouring: Uncoloured
Condition: Very Good
Date Acquired: 6/9/2018
Dealers ID No.: 19469
Description: This three-quarter length portrait of Sir Francis Drake shows him holding a baton in his left hand, while is right hand rests on a richly decorated helmet. Tied to his left sleeve is a royal favor. In the background, a globe hangs beneath an arched window with a view of Plymouth Soundthe port to which Drake returned after his circumnavigation from 1577 to 1580, and the town where he served as Mayor from 1581 to 1582. nThough undated, the engraving is estimated to have been made around 1583, based on the title indicating that Drake was 43 years old at the time. The engraver remains unidentified, though it is generally believed to be the work of Jodocus Hondius I. This attribution is supported by a note on the back of the British Museums example, written by George Vertue, the publisher of the second state of the engraving, who mentioned he acquired the copper plate from a Drake family descendant.nThis engraving is from the second state, published by Vertue in the eighteenth century, from the original copper plate. He altered it by adding shading to the background and an inscription at the bottom, noting that the portrait was engraved during Drake's life. nThe text reads :nHabes: Lector candide fortissimus ac invictissimus Ducis Draeck ad Vivum Imaginem qui toto terrarum orbe, duorum annorum, et mensium decem spatio, Zephyris faventibus, circumducto, Angliam sedes proprias 4. Calendas Octobris anno a partu Virginis 1580 revisit cum antea portu soluisset Idibus Decembris anni 1577. nHere you have, candid reader, the live image of the most courageous and unconquered Duke Drake, who, favored by the West winds, was led around the entire globe in the space of two years and ten months, and revisited England, his homeland, on the 4th day before the Calends of October in the year 1580 following the Virgin giving birth, having previously set sail from port in December in the year 1577.)
First published: London: George Vertue, 1583
Mapmaker: Hondius I, Jodocus (1563-1612)
Notes: TRN 22 (096-Hon-22) on verso
Other states: First 1583
Price: 4,800
Primary Category: Prints & Related Material
Purchase Reference: Ledger 2022.
Rarity: R3 Uncommon – dealers can usually obtain a copy
References: The first edition of the portrait is unfinished and known in two examples held at the British Museum and Scheepvaart Museum, Amsterdam. nArthur M Hind, Engraving in England in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries: A Descriptive Catalogue with Introductions (Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press, 1952), 159.
Sheet size (cm): 40×31
Technique: Copper Engraving
This state: ca. 1733, Second
Website: Click here
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