English Medals
English Medals
after Unknown artist
etching, possibly late 18th century
14 3/8 in. x 7 3/4 in. (364 mm x 197 mm) plate size
Given by the daughter of compiler William Fleming MD, Mary Elizabeth Stopford (née Fleming), 1931
Reference Collection
NPG D28618
Sittersback to top
- Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658), Lord Protector of England. Sitter associated with 224 portraits. Identify
- John de Reede (active mid 17th century), Dutch Ambassador to England. Sitter in 2 portraits. Identify
- Albert Joachim (active 17th century), Dutch Ambassador to England. Sitter in 1 portrait. Identify
- John Milton (1608-1674), Poet. Sitter associated with 72 portraits. Identify
- John Selden (1584-1654), Jurist, politician and scholar. Sitter in 23 portraits. Identify
Events of 1770back to top
Current affairs
Augustus FitzRoy, 3rd Duke of Grafton resigns as Prime Minister and is succeeded by Frederick North, 2nd Earl of Guilford.Art and science
Oliver Goldsmith publishes his poem The Deserted Village.Philosopher and politician Edmund Burke publishes Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents discussing the limits of the King's authority.
17-year-old Thomas Chatterton, later hailed as a significant poet, commits suicide in a London garret.
Thomas Gainsborough paints his portrait of Jonathan Buttall, which later becomes known as The Blue Boy.
International
'Townshend duties' on imports into the colonies are repealed, except for the duty on tea. However, this concession is soon followed by the Boston Massacre, in which British troops fire into an unruly crowd in Boston, killing five.Captain Cook reaches the eastern coast of Australia, at a place which he names Botany Bay. He discovers the Great Barrier Reef when HMS Endeavour runs onto it. Cook claims New South Wales for the British.
Comments back to top
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Jerome J Platt
28 March 2017, 06:00
The above plate consists of images of medals which appeared in two separate plates of Thomas Snelling's 'Thirty-three Plates of English Medals' (1776) and were later republished and attributed to John Pinkerton. The top five rows of medals appeared not only in Snelling's work as pl. XXIV and the bottom two rows as part of pl. XXXIV, but also in the four editions of Pinkerton 's 'Medallic History of England.' It is not clear if the plate illustrated here is one page or is a paste-up of the two separate plates. Although the four subsequent editions of Pinkerton's 'History' are usually attributed to Pinkerton, he was only involved in adding text to the first edition on a work-for-hire basis, published in 1790. The subsequent dated editions appeared in 1802, 1831, and another appeared without a publication date.