Print collector's quarterly (12.1925)

OLD ENGLISH LEGAL PORTRAITS
By R. A. RICHES

SHE recorded number of English legal portraits,
down to the early years of the 19th century,
must far exceed 500. The majority are of
judges in robes of office, and but a few of
barristers in wig and gown. With two exceptions all
the lawyers referred to are so portrayed. The Lord
Chancellors are usually represented with the Mace,
Purse and Great Seal ; the Lord Chief Justices of the

King’s Bench, the Chief Justices of the Common Pleas,
and Chief Barons of the Exchequer, it will be noticed,
are usually wearing the gold collar of the S S, an emblem
of office still worn by the Lord Chief Justice of England
to-day. Though the Lord Chief Justices of the King’s
Bench were styled Lord Chief Justices of England, it was
not until the passing of the Judicature Act 1875, when
the offices of Chief Justice of the Common Pleas and
Chief Baron of the Exchequer were abolished, that the
title of Lord Chief Justice of England was sanctioned
by statute. Consequently, in the early legal prints
of the Lord Chief Justices, in the inscription spaces
where titles appear, they are described sometimes
as “ of England,” and sometimes as “ of the King’s
Bench.”

The earlier engravers in line and mezzotint—George
Vertue, Robert White, J. Cooper, J. Smith, J. Simon,

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