DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.73058#0065
C^a/^a^.
once cleared, the debate adjourned, and the great statesman removed into one of the
adjoining apartments.
The title chosen by Copley for his picture is not literally correct; as, although the
Earl was stricken down by apoplexy in the House of Peers while in the act of speaking,
he afterwards so far recovered as to bear a journey to Hayes, where, after lingering some
weeks, he expired in his 70th year.
The plate was published by subscription, and from April, 1780, to August, 1782, there
were 1,750 subscribers, the total number of impressions taken from the copper, including
320 proofs, being 2,438.* Soon after the engraving of the plate was finished, anonymous
* Immediately after the publication, a key to the plate of " The Death of the Earl of Chatham" was engraved by
Abraham Raimbach, then an apprentice of Hall's, for which Copley charged subscribers an additional sum of three and
sixpence. Raimbach's Key was his first money-bringing work : Hall received fifteen guineas for it.
newspaper paragraphs appeared to the effect that Bartolozzi had fraudulently withheld
many of the early impressions from the subscribers who were entitled to them in the order
in which their names had been received. There was not the slightest truth in this report,
which was promptly and satisfactorily refuted by the engraver's friends. Had Bartolozzi
been ever so disposed, he could not have acted in the dishonest manner charged against
him, as Copley had the plate printed by Madame Hocquet, under his own superintendence,
in the coach-house and stabling of his private residence, in George Street, Hanover Square,
which he had converted into a printing office for the special purpose.
Although the subject is not popular, an example of Bartolozzi's " Death of the Earl
of Chatham" is sometimes required by the collector; and as it seldom appears in print-
sales, a note may be made that Messrs. Henry Graves & Co., of Pall Mall, many years ago
purchased the surplus stock, and now hold what few copies remain.
CHAPTER
47
once cleared, the debate adjourned, and the great statesman removed into one of the
adjoining apartments.
The title chosen by Copley for his picture is not literally correct; as, although the
Earl was stricken down by apoplexy in the House of Peers while in the act of speaking,
he afterwards so far recovered as to bear a journey to Hayes, where, after lingering some
weeks, he expired in his 70th year.
The plate was published by subscription, and from April, 1780, to August, 1782, there
were 1,750 subscribers, the total number of impressions taken from the copper, including
320 proofs, being 2,438.* Soon after the engraving of the plate was finished, anonymous
* Immediately after the publication, a key to the plate of " The Death of the Earl of Chatham" was engraved by
Abraham Raimbach, then an apprentice of Hall's, for which Copley charged subscribers an additional sum of three and
sixpence. Raimbach's Key was his first money-bringing work : Hall received fifteen guineas for it.
newspaper paragraphs appeared to the effect that Bartolozzi had fraudulently withheld
many of the early impressions from the subscribers who were entitled to them in the order
in which their names had been received. There was not the slightest truth in this report,
which was promptly and satisfactorily refuted by the engraver's friends. Had Bartolozzi
been ever so disposed, he could not have acted in the dishonest manner charged against
him, as Copley had the plate printed by Madame Hocquet, under his own superintendence,
in the coach-house and stabling of his private residence, in George Street, Hanover Square,
which he had converted into a printing office for the special purpose.
Although the subject is not popular, an example of Bartolozzi's " Death of the Earl
of Chatham" is sometimes required by the collector; and as it seldom appears in print-
sales, a note may be made that Messrs. Henry Graves & Co., of Pall Mall, many years ago
purchased the surplus stock, and now hold what few copies remain.
CHAPTER
47