18th Century King George III Reverse-Painted Mezzotint Engraved by Richard Purcell
👑 King George III, Great Britain
A Rare Reverse-Painted Mezzotint on Glass after Jeremiah Meyer RA, Engraved by Richard Purcell
London, Circa 1763–1765
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
🎨 Subject & Medium
An exceptionally rare and historically significant eighteenth-century reverse-painted mezzotint on glass depicting King George III of Great Britain, engraved by Richard Purcell after a portrait by Jeremiah Meyer RA, and published by Robert Sayer of Fleet Street, London, circa 1763–1765.
Combining the finest traditions of British mezzotint engraving with the highly specialised and technically demanding art of reverse painting on glass, this remarkable portrait represents one of the most desirable forms of Georgian decorative art. During the eighteenth century such works were regarded as luxurious decorative objects, considerably more costly than conventional paper engravings and intended for display in refined domestic interiors.
Today, surviving examples are considerably scarcer than their paper counterparts, particularly those retaining their original inscriptions and decorative integrity.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
🏛 Composition & Technique
The young monarch is portrayed in noble profile wearing formal court dress and the insignia of the Most Noble Order of the Garter, Britain's highest order of chivalry.
The image originates from a mezzotint engraved by Richard Purcell after Jeremiah Meyer's celebrated likeness of the newly crowned king. Following publication, the print was painstakingly hand-coloured and reverse-painted on glass, a highly specialised process requiring every colour, shadow, highlight, and detail to be applied in reverse order to the back of the glass before being viewed from the front.
This demanding technique produces a distinctive luminosity and jewel-like brilliance impossible to achieve in ordinary printed works. The survival of the complete inscription panel, together with the artist, engraver, and publisher's details, elevates this example well above the norm for surviving eighteenth-century specimens.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
👤 About the Sitter
King George III (1738–1820) was one of Britain's most influential and enduring monarchs, reigning from 1760 until his death in 1820.
His long reign witnessed some of the defining events of the modern era, including the American War of Independence, the expansion of the British Empire, the French Revolutionary Wars, and the eventual defeat of Napoleon.
Portraits produced during the early years of his reign served not merely as likenesses of the sovereign but as potent symbols of loyalty, authority, and national identity throughout Britain and its colonies. As such, they were widely displayed in both public and private settings across the empire.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
📜 Historical Context
Published shortly after George III's accession to the throne, this portrait belongs to the golden age of British mezzotint engraving.
The work was issued by Robert Sayer, one of the most important print publishers operating in Georgian London. Reverse-painted glass portraits represented a more luxurious and decorative alternative to conventional engravings and were frequently displayed in country houses, libraries, townhouses, and formal reception rooms.
Due to the inherent fragility of painted glass, many examples suffered damage, loss, or deterioration over the centuries. Consequently, authentic eighteenth-century examples survive in substantially smaller numbers than equivalent paper impressions.
Museum-quality examples retaining strong visual appeal, complete inscriptions, and documented provenance are becoming increasingly difficult to source.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
🖋 About the Artist & Engraver
Jeremiah Meyer RA (1735–1789) was a founding member of the Royal Academy and served as Portrait Painter to Queen Charlotte. His refined portraits became closely associated with the early Georgian court and helped establish the official visual image of Britain's young monarch.
The engraving was executed by Richard Purcell (c.1720–1766), one of the foremost mezzotint engravers active in mid-eighteenth-century Britain. Purcell's work is represented in major institutional collections and remains admired for its technical mastery, tonal richness, and exceptional quality.
The inscription "Richd. Purcil Fecit" confirms Purcell as the engraver, the Latin fecit translating as "made this".
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
✍️ Inscribed
The lower margin retains its complete original engraved inscriptions, including:
Meyer Pinx.
"Richd. Purcil Fecit"
Together with the title:
"George the III, King of Great Britain, &c. &c."
and the publisher's imprint for Robert Sayer, Fleet Street, London.
The survival of these complete inscriptions significantly enhances the portrait's authenticity, historical importance, and collector appeal.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
🖼 Framing & Conservation
Professionally conserved and presented in a bespoke Larson-Juhl moulded frame, fitted with premium Artglass AR99 Water White Museum Glass.
This museum-grade glazing provides exceptional optical clarity, anti-reflective performance, and approximately 99% ultraviolet protection, ensuring both an outstanding viewing experience and long-term preservation of the delicate painted surface.
The quality of the conservation framing reflects the significance of the artwork it protects and represents a substantial investment in its future care.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
📏 Dimensions
Framed
42.5 cm high × 33 cm wide × 2 cm deep
Visible Image
36 cm high × 25 cm wide
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
📚 Provenance
Private Collection, United Kingdom
Hutchinson Scott Auctioneers – Lot 656
Privately loaned and exhibited at the Famous Lord Hill Museum, Shropshire
Curated by Cheshire Antiques Consultant LTD
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
❤️ Why You'll Love It
✔ Original Georgian period example dating to circa 1763–1765
✔ Rare surviving reverse-painted mezzotint on glass
✔ Engraved by Richard Purcell, one of Britain's finest mezzotint engravers
✔ After a portrait by Jeremiah Meyer RA, founding member of the Royal Academy
✔ Retains complete title panel, artist attribution, engraver attribution, and publisher's imprint
✔ Documented auction provenance
✔ Professionally conserved with Artglass AR99 museum glazing
✔ Significant historical connection to both British and American history
✔ Exceptional decorative presence for a library, study, country house, or fine art collection
✔ Increasingly difficult to source in such complete and attractive condition
✔ Museum-quality example of eighteenth-century British decorative art
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
🔍 Condition Report
Presented in very good antique condition consistent with its age of approximately 260 years.
The work retains strong colour, excellent decorative appeal, and complete inscriptions. Expected age-related wear is present, including minor paint loss, oxidation, craquelure, and isolated surface deterioration consistent with authentic eighteenth-century reverse-painted glass works.
The portrait displays exceptionally well and benefits from modern conservation framing incorporating Artglass AR99 museum glazing and a bespoke Larson-Juhl frame, both of which remain in excellent condition.
condition report available upon request for qualified collectors.
