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[Russo-Swedish War plotters] Shields. Obrien. Benzelstierna.
[Russo-Swedish War plotters] Shields. Obrien. Benzelstierna. Med Tilladelse af H.s Ex: G: L.t v. Fircks Comandant i Kiobenhavns Castel lit Soldater Börns og andre Fregendes Beste, legnet og slukket ved G.L. Lahde. Avec permission de S: Ex: M.r Fircks L.t. G: Comd.t de la Citadelle de Copenhague au pfofit des Enfans militaires, dessiné et gravé d'apres nature par G.L. Lahde. 1789.
[drawn & engraved by Gerhard Ludwig Lahde.]
[Copenhagen: G.L. Lahde, c.1789.]
Stipple and etching, printed in sanguine. Framed. 230 x 170mm (9 x 6¾"). Blind stanp in bottom of image and inscription area. Damp stain in lower margin, stain and ink numeral in top margin. Unexamined out of frame.
Profile portraits of three plotters who tried to blow up Russian & Danish ships frozen at anchor in Copenhagen harbour during the Russo-Swedish War in 1789. Lars Benzelstierna (1759-1808), conspiring with an Irish innkeeper called Shields, purchased a cutter from another Irishman, a captain called O'Brien, using money provided by Sweden king Gustaf III. He planned to fill it with explosives and move it among the Russian ships, invite Russian officers aboard and blow them up. However O'Brien mentioned the plot to an Englishman, who had him arrested. Benzelstierna hid in the Swedish embassy but eventually gave himself up and was sentenced to death by beheading, the ladder and wheel. However the sentence was commuted on appeal; he was pardoned in 1796 when the political situation between Sweden and Denmark changed.
[Ref: 60774]   £160.00   (£192.00 incl.VAT)
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