Watercolour drawings of Speakers of the House of Commons by Thomas Athow, early 19th century

45 watercolour copies of portraits of Speakers of the House of Commons from Thomas More (1478-1535) to the Rt. Hon. Charles Manners Sutton (1780-1845) painted from portraits in the Speaker’s House as well as private collections. The watercolours were produced in the early 19th century, probably by a landscape and portrait painter named Thomas Athow (fl. 1806-1822), and many of the same portraits appear in the Sutherland collection at the Ashmolean. The collection is bound in an album, at the front of which is a printed list of Speakers that has been annotated to indicate which are represented.