Saturday, 12 April 2025

Admiral George Anson. 18th Century Sculpture at Shugborough, Part 1.






Two Very Fine Marble Busts at Shugborough. Staffordshire.

George Anson (1697 - 1762) and his wife Elizabeth Yorke (1725 - 60).

Some brief notes.

He married, 25 April 1748, Lady Elizabeth Yorke (1725 - 60), daughter of 1st Earl of Hardwicke.

She died aged 35.

 Attributed alternatively to Louis Francois Roubiliac and Joseph Wilton.

The current NT files say-

"'NT 1271319 was formerly attributed to Roubiliac (as our catalogue entry states in the Makers & Roles section), but this appears to have been adjusted to Wilton in line with information in the NT guidebooks (published from 1966 onwards). There is no further information in the central paper or digital curatorial files, however photocopies of old typewritten catalogue cards show that both busts were at one point catalogued as attributed to Roubiliac. Alastair Laing rejected this (in manuscript notes) in favour of an attribution to the British School, c.1750, with no further rationale".

I think British School was a bit of a "cop out" given the limited number of candidates for the sculptor), but if c.1750 is correct that would rule out Joseph Wilton who was in Italy until 1755.


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They are attributed to Roubiliac in Public Sculpture of Staffordshire and the Black Country by George Thomas Noszlopy, Fiona Waterhouse. pub 2005.

This publication also notes the busts of Homer (illustrated) and Virgil (no image provided)  which it states as by Roubiliac? which are still at Shugborough and which are mentioned in the intriguing 1842 auction catalogue entry of the sale at Shugborough.


I am currently leaning towards Roubiliac - it is possible that these busts were not made as a pair - the backs are quite different - the bust of Elizabeth Anson has a distinct prop which is missing on the bust of George Anson. The finish of the backs is also different.


I would also suggest that the socles are later additions, added in order for them to appear more as a pair. - they are "lumpy" to my eye and the fillet beneath the bust of Elizabeth is clumsy.

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The 8th Days Sale at Shugborough of 9 August 1842.

13 day sale hold by Mr George Robins (1777 - 1847).

Robins also conducted the sale of the contents of Strawberry Hill in 1842, Erlestoke Park etc

The Busts of the Ansons do not appear in this sale.

Given the descriptions perhaps one needs to take the auctioneers hyperbole into account!

The Busts in the Library

Lot 10. Splendid Marble Bust of Shakespeare with dress finely sculptured by Roubiliac 21" High (annotated ditto - Fell) (is this perhaps the version in the Folger Library?). see my post -

https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2016/01/the-folger-library-marble-bust-of.html

Lot 11. Companion bust of Locke with drapery by Roubiliac. 22". Sold to Emery (dealer?) of  (5) Bury St. St James'.

https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2018/03/westminster-school-bust-of-locke.html

Lot 12. A Noble Marble bust of Francis Duke of Bedford with drapery a fine specimen of sculpture by Nollekens on circular pedestal together 29 inches high. (bought for Lord Lichfield).

Lot 14. A splendid bust of the Right Honourable Charles James Fox with drapery a noble specimen of sculpture by Nollekens on a small circular pedestal together 28 inches high - (Annotated Fell ? )

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 Lot 53. A Splendid Marble Bust of Demosthenes by Roubiliac the countenance displaying vast expression and most remarkable in effect on pedestal together 26 inches (this bust is visible in the 1954 Country Life article).

see my next post -

 Lot 56. A Matchless Marble Bust of Homer by Roubiliac. The countenance wonderfully expressive full of majesty and intellect on pedestal together 29 inches high. (Bought Wander? for Lord Lichfield).


 Lot 57. A beautiful Bust of Marc Anthony finely imagined and sculptured by Roubiliac. on small pedestal 31 inches high (bought by Browne, University Street).

Is this the bust at Goodwood called Trajan?

For Joseph Browne and Co, Stone and Marble Merchant, 33 University Street, Tottenham Court Road (active 1814 - 51) see - https://www.sculpture.gla.ac.uk/mapping/public/view/organization.php?id=msib1_1231191259

There is a detailed entry for Joseph Browne in the Biographical Dictionary of British Sculptors... Pub Yale, 2009. He supplied funeral Monuments, chimneypieces and was responsible for the sculpture on Nashes Marble Arch. see - https://georgiangroup.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/GGJ_1997_Vol_7_07_Saint_0001.pdf

Lot 80. An extremely beautiful Marble Statue of Bacchus the size of life, from the antique sculptured in the finest style by Nollekens 5 feet 3 high and an imitative pedestal 1foot 8  again bought for Joseph Browne (see above note).

Lot 90. A truly magnificent specimen of modern sculpture the life size group of Castor and Pollux, copied from the antique by Nollekens. It is 5 feet 4 and may be ranked as one of the finest efforts of this renowned English sculptor also a stone pedestal 2 feet 4, again purchased by Joseph Browne. 

It was subsequently purchased by H Soden and donated to the V and by Mrs Borodaile in 1940..

Made by Nollekens in Rome in 1767 from a plaster cast the original much restored was exported from Ialy in 1724 and is in the Prado, Madrid -

This statue is now in the V and A see - https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O77807/castor-and-pollux-statue-nollekens-joseph/#object-details







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Anson joined the navy at the age of 14 in 1712 and quickly rose through the ranks to become Captain at the age of 25. In 1737 he took command of the Centurion, a 60-gun ship and in 1740 sailed to plunder the Pacific coast of South America and conquer the Spanish.

Anson became the second Englishman after Sir Francis Drake to circumnavigate the world on a  voyage against Spanish interests in the Pacific in 1740 - 44 and in 1743 became a wealthy man as a result of capturing the Spanish treasure ship 'Nuestra Senora de Covadonga' off the Philippines. 


The first stage of their journey around Cape Horn had been a military disaster with the loss of two ships and over 600 men from scurvy, cold and privation.

On 20 June 1743 Anson achieved his most notable victory, intercepting and attacking a Manila galleon, the Nuestra Señora de Covadonga that was sailing between Acapulco and the Philippines heavily laden with silver. Anson captured the ship which he later sold to the Dutch, along with 1,313,843 pieces of eight and 35,682 ounces of virgin silver, then valued at £400,000 his captain's share (37.5%) of the value of her cargo was probably over £100,000.

The total value of the prize was the equivalent to around £35 million today, of which he was entitled to a staggering £13,125,000.  


Eventually Centurion sailed alone reached Macao in November 1742, making George Anson  the first British man-of-war to visit China.

Later in command of the Channel fleet he defeated the French at the first Battle of Finisterre, 1747, after which he was raised to the peerage.

On his return in 1745, Anson was appointed Vice-Admiral of the White and joined the Whig opposition under the Duke of Bedford, 1st Lord of the Admiralty and the Earl of Sandwich. Together the three men undertook a series of reforms of the navy, including ship design and training. 

By 1747 he succeeded as First Lord of the Admiralty. In 1748, he married the Hon. Elizabeth Yorke, aged 23, the eldest daughter of Philip York, Lord Hardwicke, who was then Lord Chancellor.



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For a very useful history of the buildings and Anson Family at Shugborough see -


https://landedfamilies.blogspot.com/2014/12/149-anson-of-shugborough-hall-ranton.html


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The Battle of Finisterre.

Samuel Scott.

YCBA.

https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:1040






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Lord Anson relating his victories to George II.

Drawing by Samuel Wale.

British Museum.

The King sits to left as Anson approaches from right to make his announcements, elaborate archway behind them with glimpse of grandly arcaded courtyard beyond, possibly a view of Greenwich Hospital





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An Engraving dated 1748.

From -  Voyage autour du monde fait dans les années 1740-44 (Voyage around the world made in the years 1740-44... in the South Sea). Published by R. Walter. Decorated with maps and intaglio figs. New edition. Amsterdam and Leipzig, Arkstèe and Merkus, 1749.













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He purchased 15 St James Square, London (later Lichfield House) as a town house in 1748. He bought Orgreave Hall in 1752 and he  paid £14,000 for the Moor Park (Herts) estate the same year and spent a further £6,000 employing Matthew Brettingham to make alterations to the house, 1752-54 and Capability Brown to lay out the grounds in 1754-59.


"Anson is an unlikely naval hero. Unlike Nelson, he did not seek out the press or achieve dizzying victories. Instead, Anson’s greatest battles were fought in the halls of power, both within and outside the navy. He understood that the Royal Navy was an imperfect instrument in dire need of reform, but that bureaucratic changes came second to good personnel and talent management; and that the latter assures the former. By selecting officers and crown servants based on merit and potential, Anson was able to enact sweeping reforms in ship design; supply and support; pay and conditions of service; tactics, techniques and procedures; and education and training. 

Every aspect of naval administration was impacted by Anson, although his guiding hand is easier to sense than to hold. We regularly hear that people are Defence’s greatest asset, but few have impacted the daily lived experience as Anson did. He introduced a standardised uniform, codified punishment and court martial proceedings, streamlined promotion boards, and professionalised the officer cadre."

Quoted from - https://www.rusi.org/explore-our-research/publications/commentary/trafalgar-legacy-george-anson


He died 6 June 1762 while walking in the grounds at Moor Park and was buried at St. Michael and All Angels Church, Colwich, Staffordshire.

The barony became extinct on his death; his will was proved 16 June 1762. 

His wife died 1 June 1760 and was also buried at Colwich.


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The Marble Bust of George Anson.

This is dangerous territory but I would suggest that the two busts were both carved in about 1750.

an interesting feature here is the embroidery of the coat - this features in several portrait busts given to Henry or John Cheere

Joseph Wilton (1722 - 1803) went to Belgium in 1739 where he worked in the studio  of Laurent Delvaux, and some time after 1744 was working in Paris in the studio of Jean Baptiste Pigalle and he was in Italy from 1749 - 55.


Alastair Laing called them British school which I think was a bit of a "cop out" given that there is a limited number of sculptors working in England capable of such fine work.




 

The excellent photographs below provided by Gemma Roberts at Shugborough.

It shows what none of the official photograph have achieved the surface of the flesh which goes a long way to convince of the mastery the brilliance of Roubiliac's ability to sculpt the physiognomy of  a middle aged man.











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The Conway Library Photographs.















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The Bust of George Anson.

Image from Country Life.  25 February 1954.



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The very low resolution images below from the National Trust Website.























A view of the back of the bust (below).

It is smooth unlike the bust of Elizabeth Anson which was finished with a claw chisel (see image below).




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The Marble Bust of Elizabeth Anson (1725 - 60).

Lady Elizabeth York.

I think that the turned socles are most likely replacements and to my eye the busts sit uncomfortably.

It has been assumed that the bust of Elizabeth Anson and her husband were made as a pair but there are some important differences.

The bust of Elizabeth Anson has a fillet between it and the socle -her back is finished with a claw chisel unlike the bust of George Anson which has a smooth back.


The two images below from the Conway Library at the Courtauld Institute.









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The National Trust Website Images.






















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The back of the bust of Elizabeth Anson has been finished with a claw chisel.










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The Engraved and Painted Portraits of George Anson.

The intention here is to provide some sort of comparison between the two dimensional representations of Anson and the marble bust at Shugborough.

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George Anson. 

Engraving.

Charles Mosely.

1740

Image courtesy National Galleries of Scotland.







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George Anson.

Engraved by Charles Grignion.

after the original by Arthur Pond.

Dated 1744.

This version from the British museum - there is  another at the NPG.











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Anson.

After Arthur Pond.

From the Universal Magazine.

1748.

Image from the excellent National Galleries of Scotland.






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George Anson.

Johnson?

Printed and sold by M. Overton at the Golden Buck, Fleet Street, London.

1747.

The plate is after Faber junior's engraving after Alan Ramsay of Admiral the Hon. Charles Stewart (1681-1741).


British Museum.




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George Anson

Mezzotint

1747.

'Lord Anson, Baron of Soberton in the County of Southampton / Vice Admiral of the Blue. // G. Bockman delineavit & fecit, 1747. // Sold by H Overton without Newgate London.'

Image Courtesy British Museum.








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George Anson.

Undated anonymous engraving.

This portrait is related to the engraved mezzotint immediately below.

Presumably mid 18th Century.

Image courtesy National Galleries of Scotland






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George Anson.

Here the wig is most similar to that worn on the bust.

Anon.

Mezzotint.

 Image Courtesy British Museum.





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The  Anonymous Portrait of George Anson at the National Maritime Museum. 

see -








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George II and his Officials.

Engraving.

Thomas Jeffreys (c 1719 - 71) 

After 1746.

Anson after Pond.

NPG.




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George Anson

Engraving by Jacobus Houbraken. 

after J. Wandelaar.

line engraving.

1751.

NPG











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This version engraved by Houbraken.

after Wandelaar ad vivum

Pub. Fouquet, Amsterdam.






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George Anson.

Anonymous (Houbraaken?) portrait engraving.

Based on the Wandalaar Portrait 

National Maritime museum






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George Anson.

Engraved by and sold by James Macardell (c.1728 - 65).

after Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723 - 92).

Mezzotint.

Published 1755.



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George Anson.

Francis Coates (1726 - 1770).

Pastel.

c. 1750.

Shugborough.





George Anson.

Joshua Reynolds.

Sittings recorded for February 21st and 25th 1755.

Shugborough.

National Trust.

https://www.nationaltrustcollections.org.uk/object/1271068








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George Anson.

Studio of Joshua Reynolds.

This picture is one of a group left to Greenwich Hospital by Admiral Sir Hugh Palliser, Governor of Greenwich Hospital, in 1796.


National Maritime Museum.



They say -

A three-quarter-length portrait to the right showing Anson in flag officer’s full dress uniform, 1748–67,


In the right background are the yachts of the squadron he commanded which brought Princess Charlotte to Britain in 1761?






In the right background are the yachts of the squadron he commanded which brought Princess Charlotte to Britain in 1761.

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Anson.

Copy of a Portrait at Shugborough by William Hoare

in the Royal Collection.



A low resolution image of the Shugborough portrait is available here -

https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/admiral-sir-george-anson-16971762-baron-anson-of-soberton-132286

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George Anson.

Copy of a relief   after James Tassie (1735 - 99).

Plaster Relief of 1894.

Image copyright National Galleries of Scotland.

https://www.nationalgalleries.org/art-and-artists/1742?search=Anson&search_set_offset=5






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Portrait Traditionally Identified as Admiral George Anson.

Thomas Hudson (1701 - 79).

There appears to be some doubt as to whether it represents Anson or is by Hudson!

National Maritime Museum. Royal Museums Greenwich.

They suggest prior to 1748.






For another portrait at the National Maritime Museum see -



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George Anson.

Gold Medallion.

1747.

Thomas Pingo (1692 - 1776). 

It is not clear how he obtained the image - possibly ad vivum from a sitting or perhaps from a wax.

Medal commemorating the Defeat of the French fleet off Cape Finisterre and Admiral Anson's voyage around the world. 1747.

4.3 cm (diameter).

Obverse: Bust of Admiral Anson left being crowned by Victory standing on the prow of a galley. GEORGE LORD ANSON Below: VICT. MAY III MDCCXLVII


Image below courtesy British Museum.





This image below from the Royal Collection.








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The Painted Portraits of Elizabeth Anson (1725 - 60).

Elizabeth Yorke Lady Anson.

The Two Shugborough Portraits and another at Wimpole Hall, Cambridge.

I include this portrait below for reference - I am very doubtful - stylistically it is much earlier than the 1740's and is very unlikely to represent Elizabeth Anson.

The National Trust website leaving their options open states -

Style of Sir Godfrey Kneller (Lübeck 1646 - London 1723). John Vanderbank the younger (London 1694 - London 1739). attributed to Michael Dahl (Stockholm 1659 - London 1743). Who writes this stuff?











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Probably Lady Elizabeth Yorke, Lady Anson.

Thomas Hudson (Devonshire 1701 – Twickenham 1779).

Portrait at Wimpole Hall.

For more portraits by Hudson see -

https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/search/actor:hudson-thomas-17011779

The clothing possibly painted by Alexander van Aken the Drapery painter who assisted Thomas Hudson after the death of his brother, Joseph van Aken, in 1749.


Text below from the National Trust website.


"The sitter is probably the writer and political manager, Lady Elizabeth Yorke, Lady Anson. Elizabeth was the eldest daughter of Philip Yorke, 1st Earl of Hardwicke, and his wife Margaret Cocks. 

She lived at Wimpole Hall until her marriage in 1748 to Admiral George Anson of Shugborough. Elizabeth was strongly involved in the design of the gardens at Shugborough. This picture may be the only extant oil portrait by Hudson in the pastoral style (two others are known from engravings only)".


https://www.nationaltrustcollections.org.uk/object/207889





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Elizabeth Anson.

Studio of Thomas Hudson (1701 - 79).

She holds a drawing of Dante by (possibly) Carlo Dolci.

Very low resolution image  and text below from the National Trust website.

"The drawing of Dante is the one in red & black chalk, bearing the marks of Jonathan Richardson the Elder (Lugt 2184; cf. the drawing of Et in Arcadia Ego ascribed to Poussin, in Lord Lichfield’s collection, shown in the prime version of the present portrait) and Thomas Hudson (Lugt 2432), that is now in the Fitzwilliam Museum. Ascribed to Giulio Clovio when acquired, but later (along with the related painting in the Kress Collection in the NGA in Washington) to Battista Naldini by Federico Zeri, it is currently attributed to Carlo Dolci (by David Scrase). The original ascription to Giulio Clovio is interesting, because, in an ode subsequently published in The Gentleman’s Magazine (vol.XL, 1970, p.38), entitled ‘Ode to the Hon. Miss Yorke (afterwards Lady Anson), on her copying a Portrait of Dante by Clovio. By her Brother, the (late) Hon. Charles Yorke, Esq.’ Lady Anson’s brother (who had just died) appears to have been celebrating a painted copy by his sister of a painted original by Clovio".











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Peter Scheemakers and the Ansons at Shugborough.

Hadrian's Arch, c. 1765.

These images are currently the best I can find of the busts on the version of  Hadrian's Arch at Shugborough.

Designed by James "Athenian" Stuart after the original at Athens.

In 1760, Thomas Anson suffered a great loss, with the death of his close friend and sister-in-law, Elizabeth York, and again in 1762, with the death of his brother George. 

Thomas memorialised them both by adding their busts in the outer arches. In the central arch, Thomas added an ‘aplustre’, a commemorative plaque. It depicts naval trophies and other attributes linked to his brother’s illustrious life.





































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Stuart, James. 1762. The antiquities of Athens, v. 4, London : Printed by J. Haberkorn.


Excellent high resolution Image below from The Smithsonian Libraries.









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The Shepherdess's Tomb.

With a relief by Peter Scheemakers after a painting Et in Arcadia Ego by Poussin.

This peculiar folly has been the subject of much speculation, which I will not comment on here but will refer the reader to an excellent article in the Georgian Group Journal by James Stevens Curl.

The surround is taken from a design by Thomas Wright (1711 - 86) with additions perhaps designed by James Athenian Stuart.


Below is a link to the Georgian Group Journal article by James Stevens Curl.




The monument, commissioned by Thomas Anson, was built sometime between 1748 and 1756. The outer form of the monument is a portico featuring two doric columns. These support an entablature decorated by a frieze comprising three metopes depicting laurel wreaths, and two containing carvings of stone heads. One head shows a smiling bald-headed man; the other bears a likeness to the goat-horned Greek god Pan. The entablature is topped with an antefix using an anthemion design.

 

Inside the portico is a rusticated arch, which frames a relief carved by sculptor Peter Scheemakers. The relief is a copy of the Poussin painting Et in arcadia ego and shows a woman and three men, two of whom are pointing to a tomb. 

After an engraving of a painting known as 'Les Bergers d'Arcadie' or 'Et in Arcadia ego', executed c.1638/40, acquired by Louis XIV in 1685 and now in the Musée du Louvre, Paris.


On the tomb is carved the Latin text Et in arcadia ego ("I am also in Arcadia" or "I am, even in Arcadia"). 

The carving displays a number of small alterations from the original painting, including the addition of an extra sarcophagus placed on top of the main tomb. 

Below the relief is a stone plaque displaying a ten-letter inscription. The inscription is broken into two lines. There are eight letters on the first line, and two below on the second line, placed at either end of the letters on the first line. The letters on the second line, D M, were commonly used on Roman tombs to stand for Dis Manibus, meaning "dedicated to the shades".





Image below from the Conway Library, Courtauld Gallery.







Image below showing the hands of the Shepherds appearing to merge into the inscription.











A Reminder of Death in the Middle of the Prosperity of Life.

Engraving after Poussin by Bernard Picart (1673 - 1733).

Rue St Jacques, au Buste de Monseigneur, Paris

 Image below from the British Museum.

https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1874-0808-1822

For the Original painting in the Louvre see -

https://collections.louvre.fr/en/ark:/53355/cl010062528






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Thomas Anson (c. 1695 – 30 March 1773).

The Library at Shugborough.


Images from Country Life Magazine. 25 February 1954.












Thomas Anson, FRS  the older brother of  George Anson was a British Member of Parliament, traveller and amateur architect.


The Anson brothers were the sons of William Anson (1656–1720) and Isabella Carrier, who was sister-in-law to Thomas Parker, 1st Earl of Macclesfield. 

The family estate was Shugborough Hall in Staffordshire. 


Admiral George Anson, 1st Baron Anson was his younger brother and along with their cousin, George Parker, 2nd Earl of Macclesfield, they were taught mathematics and navigation by Isaac Newton's friend, the mathematician William Jones, who was later to propose Anson's membership for the Royal Society in 1730. Anson went up to St John's College, Oxford, and later studied law at the Inner Temple.

Upon his father's death, Anson abandoned law and began the first of many travels to the continent. In 1732 Anson and his friend the Earl of Sandwich formed a riotous dining-club called the Society of the Dilettanti, which also had the more serious purpose of encouraging study of Greek architecture. In 1740 Thomas briefly joined his brother George on The Centurion, as he and his crew began their circumnavigation of the globe. Anson left them in order to travel to Egypt. This qualified him for the Egyptian Society and the Divan Society, the latter being a wild drinking-club of which Lord Dashwood and Lady Mary Wortley Montagu were avid members.

He was elected to the House of Commons for Lichfield in 1747, a seat he held until 1770.

In 1748 Anson was sent to Versailles by Lord Sandwich with secret correspondence for the Duc de Choiseul and Madame de Pompadour.

In 1762 he succeeded to the vast fortune from the Spanish treasure amassed by his brother. 

This enabled him to further indulge his passion for architecture at Shugborough. 

Anson died unmarried in March 1773. 

The Anson estates were passed on to his nephew, George Adams, who assumed the surname of Anson and was ancestor of the Earls of Lichfield.








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