Gulielmus Herschel LL.D: RSS.From an Original Picture in the Possession of W.m Watson MD: FRS.
Painted by Abbott. Engraved by Ryder.
Publish'd as the Act directs 11th Feb.y 1788 by S. Watts, No 28 Walcot place Lambeth.
Stipple. Sheet 275 x 185mm (10¾ x 7¼"). With etching of Herschel's telescope, sheet 285 x 325mm. Trimmed within plate, mounted on album paper at edges.
Frederick William Herschel, Hanoverian astronomer, who came to England during the Seven Years's War and was the first President of the Royal Astronomical Society when it was founded in 1820. The owner of the painting, Sir William Watson, asked his friend Herschel to sit for Abbott, saying, ''When you are in town on full moon nights you may perhaps spare an hour early in the morning, & may sit three or four times running - & the thing may in this way be done without much inconvenience or loss of time''. The original oil is now in the National Portrait Gallery. The telescope in the second picture is Herschel's '40-foot telescope (i.e. with a 40-ft focal length), built in Slough between 1785-9. It was largest telescope in the world for 50 years. According to the scratched publication line under the image, it was 'Publish'd Feb 1 1791 by W. Herschel', issued in The Philosophical Transactions of t he Royal Society.
[Ref: 52941] £380.00
Publish'd as the Act directs 11th Feb.y 1788 by S. Watts, No 28 Walcot place Lambeth.
Stipple. Sheet 275 x 185mm (10¾ x 7¼"). With etching of Herschel's telescope, sheet 285 x 325mm. Trimmed within plate, mounted on album paper at edges.
Frederick William Herschel, Hanoverian astronomer, who came to England during the Seven Years's War and was the first President of the Royal Astronomical Society when it was founded in 1820. The owner of the painting, Sir William Watson, asked his friend Herschel to sit for Abbott, saying, ''When you are in town on full moon nights you may perhaps spare an hour early in the morning, & may sit three or four times running - & the thing may in this way be done without much inconvenience or loss of time''. The original oil is now in the National Portrait Gallery. The telescope in the second picture is Herschel's '40-foot telescope (i.e. with a 40-ft focal length), built in Slough between 1785-9. It was largest telescope in the world for 50 years. According to the scratched publication line under the image, it was 'Publish'd Feb 1 1791 by W. Herschel', issued in The Philosophical Transactions of t he Royal Society.
[Ref: 52941] £380.00