Thomas Richmond’s Magnifying Glass

Out of stock

Hardwood frame A/F, glass intact / separated from the frame, (no handle). The sale includes a hand written note by Walter Coleridge Richmond showing proof of ownership along with a little biographical information on T.R. Provenance: By descent in the Richmond family.

Description

The note reads:

This magnifying glass belongs to T.R. Thomas Richmond my fathers father the miniature painter. He used it to help him with his painting, holding his glass in his left hand painting with his right. He painted a great number of excellent portraits.

He was a pupil of George Englheart and was connected with him by marriage, G.E’s mother and T.R’s mother being sisters named Mary and Ann Bone. They lived at Kew. T.R senior had a house built for his wife on the Mortlake Rd, at the corner of Kew Green, now ‘The Coach and Horses Inn’.

T.R. senior is buried at Kew. T.R. junior at Paddington

Additional information

Frame or Mount

Outer edge of frame: 11 centimetres in diameter

Brand

Richmond, Thomas (1771-1837)

Was the son of Thomas Richmond, originally of Bawtry, and of an old Yorkshire family. His father was 'groom of the stables' to the Duke of Gloucester, and afterwards the proprietor of the Coach and Horses at Kew, where the artist was born in 1771. His mother, Ann Bone, was a cousin of George Engleheart, 'miniature-painter to the king.' Thomas became Engleheart's pupil, and was employed by the royal family in copying miniatures by his master and Richard Cosway. He also copied in miniature size many of the portraits by Sir Joshua Reynolds in the royal collection. His original and unsigned miniatures are numerous. Some are on ivory, others are on paper, and in many cases full or half length, with the head in colours and the rest in pencil. Though the pose of some of his figures is in the stiff manner usual at the time, the portraits are lifelike, and the drawing and expression excellent. In later years Richmond lived in the centre of fashion, 42 Half-Moon Street, Mayfair. From 1795 to 1825 he exhibited forty-six miniatures at the Royal Academy. One of his miniatures, a portrait of his wife (Ann Oram), painted in 1808, was engraved by William Holl, jun. His eldest son, also named Thomas Richmond, was born in 1802. His younger son, George Richmond, inherited many of his works. Both of his children also became noted artists. He died in 1837, and was buried in Paddington churchyard.