Category Archives: British

Sir Walter Ralegh 1552-1618


A poet, explorer, soldier, sailor, courtier and favourite of Elizabeth I, Ralegh was a true ‘Renaissance Man’. Much of his literary work is lost but about thirty short poems and various prose works survive, including The History of the World. He organised and financed a number of expeditions to North America, and in later life made several unsuccessful attempts to find gold in South America. Implicated in a plotting against James I, Ralegh spent much of the kings reign in the Tower. He was executed for treason in 1618.
Artist: Anthony Walker

Size 16 x 9 cms

Price £10.00

Ref:3074

Nicholas Saunderson (or Sanderson) 1682-1739 mathematician

Saunderson went blind aged one year after he contracted smallpox. He taught mathematics, astronomy and optics at Cambridge University from 1707 and became Professor of Mathematics in 1712. He later worked closely with Halley and Flamsteed in their attempts to calculate longitude at sea, one of the major challenges of the eighteenth century.

Artist: John Vanderbank

Size 17 x 11 cms

Price £10.00

Ref:3073

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James Wolfe 1727-1759 General

General James Wolfe led the British attack on Quebec that ended French rule in Canada in 1759. He discovered a steep, unguarded path which enabled him to land his troops unobserved, however, Wolfe would never actually enter the city as he died the following day from his battle wounds. The importance of the conquest and his death, in the hour of victory, made Wolfe the eighteenth-century’s most moving tragic hero.

Artist: unknown

Size 17 x 10 cms

Price £12.00

Ref:3066

Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield 1694-1773

British statesman, diplomat, man of letters, and an acclaimed wit of his time. He was born in London to Philip Stanhope, 3rd Earl of Chesterfield, and Lady Elizabeth Savile, and known as Lord Stanhope until the death of his father, in 1726.

Artist: William Hoare Size 15 x 10 cms

Price £10.00

Ref:3064

Martin Archer Shee 1769-1850

The Irish-born Shee was primarily a portrait painter. He moved to London in 1788 where, after working as an engraver, he enrolled in the Royal Academy Schools in 1790. He was elected a full academician in 1805 An energetic reformer, Shee published Rhymes on Art, or the Remonstrance of a Painter (1800) which called for national support for the arts.

Artist: Sir Martin Archer Shee

Size 19 x 13 cms

Price £18.00

Ref:3058

Francis Bacon, 1561-1626. Lord Chancellor

Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Alban, PC QC was an English philosopher and statesman who served as Attorney General and as Lord Chancellor of England. His works are credited with developing the scientific method and remained influential through the scientific revolution. Bacon has been called the father of empiricism.

Artist: Jacobus Houbraken

Size 16 x 10 cms

Price £10.00

Ref:3059