| Method | Mezzotint |
| Artist | after Hugh Douglas Hamilton |
| Published | London, Printed for Robt. Sayer No. 53 Fleet Street, as the Act Directs 2. Jan. 1772. |
| Dimensions | Image 100 x 84 mm, Plate 152 x 115 mm, Sheet 210 x 150 mm |
| Notes |
A portrait of Anne Boyle (d.1785), Countess of Cork and Orrery. She was the first wife of Edmund Boyle, 7th Earl of Cork and Orrery. Hugh Douglas Hamilton (1736-1808) was an Irish painter, draughtsman and pastellist. Born in Dublin, he studied under West (1750-56); then set up his own studio in Dublin. He moved to London in around 1764, and exhibited with the Free Society of Artists (1764-72), and the Society of Artists (1766-75). He settled in Rome between 1778 and 1791, taking brief trips to Florence (c.1787-89). In Rome he became acquainted with Flaxman and Canova. He exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1787 and 1791. He returned to Dublin in 1791. Robert Sayer (1725-1794) was a major British publisher and seller of prints and maps. Based at the Golden Buck, Fleet Street (1748), Sayer became a liveryman of the Stationers' Company in 1753. In 1754 he married Dorothy Carlos (d.1774). In 1760 he moved from the Golden Buck to a premises in Fleet Street. At various times he took over the stock of Herman Moll, John Senex, John Rocque and Thomas Jefferys; and probably also took over the stock of Henry Overton II in the 1760s. By the mid-1760s he was becoming increasingly successful; setting up a manufactory for prints, maps and charts in Bolt Court near Fleet Street. In 1780, he married his second wife, Alice Longfield with whom he appears in a painting by Zoffany. Between 1774 and 1784 the business traded as Sayer & Bennett; the partnership ending when Bennett suffered a mental collapse. Thereafter, until Sayer's death in 1794, the company was named Sayer & Co. or Robert Sayer & Co., probably a reference to his assistants Robert Laurie and James Whittle. From 1794 until 1812 the business traded as Laurie & Whittle, Sayer having left the pair a twenty-one year lease on the shop and on the Bolt Court premises, as well as an option to acquire stock and equipment at £5,000, payable over three years. Sayer's son, James, never seems to have been involved in the business. Chaloner Smith ENA III 1762, Lennox - Boyd i/i, O'Donoghue 2 Ex. Col.: Hon. Christopher Lennox-Boyd Condition: Crease in upper right corner of sheet, not affecting image. |
| Framing | unmounted |
| Price | £120.00 |
| Stock ID | 21277 |