Sir Thomas Lawrence's Cabinet of Gems

Very good copy of Sir Thomas Lawrence's collection of intimate family sketches

12 charming portraits on steel, hand tinted to give the impression of pastel sketches

Frontispiece engraved bust, engraved title page and 12 hand-coloured engraved plates.

A snapshot of the family and friends of the most popular portrait artist in Georgian England

The subjects include:

Lady Emma Hamilton, scandalous mistress of Lord Horatio Nelson, in see-through dress and turban, looking up most ravishingly.

Self-portrait of Sir Thomas Lawrence, and portraits of his innkeeper father Thomas Lawrence and mother Lucy Read, depicted close to death.

Cute portraits of his nephews Thomas Lawrence Bloxam, Rowland Bloxam and Henry Bloxam, all in dresses and ribbons.

Two depictions of his niece Mary Isabella Bloxam, as a young girl and once again as a young woman.

The Calmeady children in an embrace.

Two unknown girls, one in a lace bonnet.

His niece Lucy Meredith.

Lady Augusta Lowther, Countess of Fane, wife of the 1st Earl of Lonsdale.

Sir Thomas Lawrence was an English artist who became the most fashionable portraitist in Georgian England, 1769-1830. A child prodigy from Bristol, he moved to London at 18 and received his first royal commission, a portrait of Queen Charlotte, at 21. Despite his success, he was always in debt and suffered a tragic romance with both daughters of actress Sarah Siddons. He later became the president of the Royal Academy in 1820.

The fine steel engravings by Frederick Christians Lewis, 1779–1856, English etcher, aquatint and stipple engraver, landscape and portrait painter.

Original green cloth binding with gilt-stamped title on front board, spine repaired with red buckram, boards stained and discoloured, manuscript CMB and "GFH to EAH 18th Jan 1841" on front endpaper, foxing to frontis, spotting to text pages, slight offsetting to plates, but all engraved plates like delicate hand-coloured pastels. Heavier spotting to frontis engraved bust of the artist.