James WATSON (Dublin 1740 - London 1790) "Sir Robert Walpole, afterwards Earl of Orford" Original halftone etching from a subject by Carl Vanloo, printed and published in London by John & Josiah Boydell in 1788 and included in the collection entitled "A set of Prints engraved after the most capital Paintings in the Collection of her Imperial Majesty the Empress of Russia, lately in the possession of the Earl of Norfolk, at Houghton in Norfolk ... "made by the same publishers from the same year. Magnificent copy in coeval edition, printed with perfect inking on a portion of laid paper, complete with the imprint of the slab and with small margins, applied with numerous small points of glue to an ancient binding sheet, in an almost perfect general state of conservation . Sir Robert Walpole (Houghton 1676 - 1745) was a British politician of considerable influence during the reign of both George I and George II, appointed First Lord of the Treasury in 1721, he governed uninterruptedly until 1742; he is generally regarded as the first English politician in the office of Prime Minister. To the passion for politics Walpole added in a no less intense way that for art and in particular for painting. Its magnificent collection, considered at the time one of the most important in Europe, was sold in 1779 by his nephew to Catherine II Empress of Russia and is now mostly kept in the Hermitage of St. Petersburg. Bibliography: Goodwin G. "British Mezzotinters: Thomas Watson, James Watson, Elizabeth Judkins" London 1904 No. 131. Lewine "Bibliography of Eighteenth Century Art and Illustrated Books" London 1898 p. 204. Rubinstein "Richard Earlom (1743-1822) and Boydell's Houghton Gallery" in Print Quarterly, Vol II frontispice, London, 1991. Measurements in mm: 505 x 354