Author: [VERTUE (George)]
Title: Prints. King Charles I. and the Heads of the Noble Earls, Lords, and others, who suffered for their Loyalty in the Rebellion and Civil-Wars of England. With their Characters engraved under each Print, extracted from Lord Clarendon. Taken from Original Pictures of the greatest Masters, many of them Sir Anthony Vandyke's, and all the Heads accurately engraved by Mr Geo. Vertue...
Description: London: Printed and Published according to Act of Parliament, for C. Davis; S. Austen; and W. H. Toms, 1746. First edition, large folio, [2], 2pp., without the list of subscribers, engraved frontispiece and 10 engraved plates with a total of 26 portraits of royalists, letter-press title and preface, some minor spotting and light browning but overall the plates are very clean and bright, expertly rebound in cont. style calf calf, marbled boards, red morocco spine label, an attractive copy. Rare: ESTC locates only three copy in the UK (all at Oxford) and four copies in North America. A reason for the scarcity of the complete volume may be found in a note on the title page, which advises that: "As these Prints are an agreeable Ornament for Rooms, they may be had of the Proprietors in neat black Frames and Glasses". Vertue's parents had served in the court of the exiled James II, and the publication of this volume in praise of loyal servants to the Stuart crown in the year of Culloden may well suggest Jacobite sympathies. This may be signalled by couplet from Pope quoted in the frontispiece: "Rich Industry Sat Smiling on the Plain | And Peace, and Plenty, told a Stuart's reign."

Keywords: ROYALTY ANTIQUARIAN KING CHARLES I LORDS EARLS ROYALISTS PORTRAITS ART ENGRAVINGS