![[William Richard Hamilton.] WRHamilton Sec. Soc. Del 1830-1858 [facsimile signature].](jpegs/59702.jpg)
[William Richard Hamilton.] WRHamilton Sec. Soc. Del 1830-1858 [facsimile signature].
H. Phillips, Pinx.t. R.J. Lane, A.E.R.A. Hanhart, Imp.t.
[n.d., c.1858.]
Tinted lithograph on chine collé. Printed area 255 x 185mm (10 x 7¼"), very large margins. Dusty.
Seated portrait of William Richard Hamilton (1777-1859), diplomat and antiquarian. As chief private secretary to Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin, he was in Egypt for the evacuation of Napoleon's defeated army in 1801: with an escort of soldiers he boarded a French ship and recovered the Rosetta Stone, which the French were taking away contrary to the treaty. The following year he collected the Parthenon marbles for removal to England, and organised the recovery of all the pieces that sank at Cerigo. After a voyage up the Nile, he wrote a well-known work of Egyptology, 'Ægyptiaca', which contained an important transcript of the 'Greek copy of the decree on the Rosetta stone', with a translation in English. In 1830 he succeeded Sir Thomas Lawrence as Secretary of the Society of Dilettanti; in 1833 he was one of the founders of the Royal Geographical Society; and he was a trustee of the British Museum from 1838-58.
[Ref: 59702] £230.00
[n.d., c.1858.]
Tinted lithograph on chine collé. Printed area 255 x 185mm (10 x 7¼"), very large margins. Dusty.
Seated portrait of William Richard Hamilton (1777-1859), diplomat and antiquarian. As chief private secretary to Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin, he was in Egypt for the evacuation of Napoleon's defeated army in 1801: with an escort of soldiers he boarded a French ship and recovered the Rosetta Stone, which the French were taking away contrary to the treaty. The following year he collected the Parthenon marbles for removal to England, and organised the recovery of all the pieces that sank at Cerigo. After a voyage up the Nile, he wrote a well-known work of Egyptology, 'Ægyptiaca', which contained an important transcript of the 'Greek copy of the decree on the Rosetta stone', with a translation in English. In 1830 he succeeded Sir Thomas Lawrence as Secretary of the Society of Dilettanti; in 1833 he was one of the founders of the Royal Geographical Society; and he was a trustee of the British Museum from 1838-58.
[Ref: 59702] £230.00