Robert Lowe, 1st Viscount Sherbrooke

1 portrait

© National Portrait Gallery, London

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Robert Lowe, 1st Viscount Sherbrooke

by Carlo Pellegrini
terracotta statuette, 1873
18 3/4 in. x 5 1/4 in. (475 mm x 133 mm) overall
Purchased, 1976
Primary Collection
NPG 5106

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  • Carlo Pellegrini (1839-1889), 'Ape'; caricaturist. Artist or producer associated with 490 portraits, Sitter in 5 portraits.

This portraitback to top

This is a unique terracotta statuette by the Italian caricaturist, Carlo Pellegrini. In 1871, as Chancellor of the Exchequer, Lowe proposed a tax of one half-penny on a box of matches. London matchmakers took to the streets and he was forced to withdraw the measure. He is shown standing on a matchbox, incised with the slogan which he coined 'Ex luce lucellum': 'out of light a little gain'.
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Current affairs

The public entertainment centre Alexandra Palace, designed by architect Owen Jones (associated with the Crystal Palace) and built between Wood Green and Muswell Hill in North London, burns down within sixteen days of opening. Named after Alexandra of Denmark, married to Prince Edward, the Prince of Wales, the palace was quickly rebuilt, and has since been used as a transmission centre for the BBC, and as a musical entertainment venue.

Art and science

Edith Coleridge edits her late mother Sara Coleridge's Memoir and Letters. Sara, the daughter of the poet and philosopher Samuel Taylor Coleridge, was an author, translator and editor of her father's works.

International

Inspired by prospectors' demands for better quality trousers during the 1850s Gold Rush, Levi Strauss develops a trouser made with twilled cotton cloth from France called 'serge de Nimes', later known as denim. This year, he patents the process of putting rivets in the trousers for strength, introducing 'blue jeans' to the world.

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