| Method | Mezzotint |
| Artist | Charles Corbutt [Richard Purcell] after Philippe Mercier |
| Published | Printed for Robt. Sayer, No.53 in Fleet Street. [c.1750] |
| Dimensions | Image 131 x 110 mm, Plate 150 x 111 mm, Sheet 197 x 153 mm |
| Notes |
A rare miniature mezzotint droll of a girl shown three quarter length slightly turned to left smiling, looking at the viewer, wearing a simple cap and dress holding a black cat in her left arm. Charles Corbutt was a pseudonym used by the Irish engraver Richard Purcell when plagiarising the work of others, usually for the publisher Robert Sayer. Philippe Mercier (c.1689-1760) was a French painter and engraver, who lived and worked principally in London. The son of a Huguenot tapestry worker, Mercier was born in Berlin, where he studied painting at the Akademie der Wissenschaften, and later under Antoine Pesne. He travelled to Italy and France before settling in London in 1716. Painter to Frederick Prince of Wales (1729-36), Mercier mainly specialised in portraits, but in later years he made fancy pictures in the manner of Watteau for engraving. His wife Dorothy ran a print shop in London. 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 undescribed, Russell undescribed, Lennox-Boyd i/i Condition: Slightly rubbed. |
| Framing | unmounted |
| Price | £250.00 |
| Stock ID | 52941 |