Nathaniel Marchant's Hercules Restoring Alcestis to Admetus was described by Nevil Story-Maskelyne in his 1870 Marlborough gems catalogue as a 'magnificent work … perhaps the chef d’oeuvre of Marchant’ (op. cit., p. XVI). The intaglio, which is amongst Marchant's later works engraved in London after his 16 year sojourn in Rome, is an original composition which nonetheless exhibits Marchant's overarching concern for remaining faithful to antique models.

The material (which was identified as 'Sard' in the literature but is likely to be carnelian) was described by Gertrude Seidmann as 'a magnificent stone' and was gifted by Frederick Augustus III Elector of Saxony to the 4th Duke of Marlborough in thanks for two volumes of his The Marlborough Gems catalogue. Seidmann suggests that the commission to Marchant was made by Marlborough, who was one of the engraver's earliest patrons. However, the possibility cannot be discounted that the Elector of Saxony both gifted the stone and commissioned the intaglio, in a gesture befitting a monarch to a duke.

Marchant was trained in London by the celebrated gem engraver Edward Burch (circa 1730-1814) and, whilst still an apprentice, won four first class premiums (prizes) from the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (which became the Royal Society of Arts). He considered himself above the rank of a mere engraver, writing on 1 October 1768 to the secretary of the Society of Artists requesting that he and Burch be referred to as sculptors, a 'more applicable... [title] than the word engraver' (see Seidmann, op. cit., pp. 7-8). In 1772 Marchant left for Rome, probably funded by his patron the 4th Duke of Marlborough. He lived in the artistic centre of the city, between Piazza del Popolo and Piazza di Spagna, first at Palazzo Piombini in Via Babuino and later in Piranesi's former Palazzo in Strada Felice (the present day Via Sistina). In her wonderful biography of the artist, Seidmann describes how 'calls on Marchant might have become as customary as sittings to Batoni' (op. cit., p. 15). His patrons included the richest and most cultivated British Grand Tourists including Lord George Herbert (the future 11th Earl of Pembroke) who went 'to Merchant's an English Sculptor, much employed by the Duke of Marlborough, who has great merit, very modest and many Judges reckon him the first in his profession' (the Duke of Marborough was Lord Herbert's uncle; Seidmann, op. cit., p. 12). Within two years of his arrival in the Eternal City, Marchant was beginning to rival even the Pichler dynasty of engravers, considered the leading workshop in Rome. Whilst Marchant's core clientele were largely visiting British Grand Tourists, his patrons included Italians and other foreigners resident in Rome, including Pope Pius VI, Girolamo Zulian, Prince Marc Antonio IV Borghese, Jakob Philipp Hackert, and Louisa, Countess of Albany.

Marchant's guiding principle was fidelity to the antique original. He absorbed himself in Rome's museums and private collections studying antiquities, particularly those in the newly inaugurated Museo Pio-Clementinum. Seidmann describes how, for Marchant, ' 'the most distinguished province of ancient art' lay ... in choosing subjects from 'those estimable remains of ancient art' which, he prided himself, he was 'the first Englishman' (that is, the first English gem-engraver) to have 'examined on the spot', including 'the very considerable discoveries which were made during his actual residence in Rome' (Seidmann, ., p. 15; quoting Marchant from the preface for his 1792 Catalogue of 100 Impressions from Gems). Veracity was therefore key for Marchant, as was the process of discovery and observation; he refused to cater to the large market for hackneyed and popular models.

The Hercules Restoring Alcestis to Admetus is significant since it marks a departure from the engraver's venerable approach of faithfully copying sculptures after the antique. Rather, it is an original composition inspired by a classical Greek three figure relief depicting Eurydice being returned to Orpheus by Hermes of which versions are in the Musée du Louvre (inv. no. Ma 854) and the National Archaeological Museum, Naples (inv. no.6727) (cf. Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae, Zurich and Munich, 1981-1999, iii, Eurydike I, 5a, pl.). In a nod to his earlier practice, Marchant has remained true to the antique model but has converted the standard narrative to an episode from Euripides’ tragedy Alcestis (438 BCE). Following the death of the heroine Alcestis, Herakles/Hercules tricks the grief stricken Admetus to take the hand of a veiled woman whom Herakles/Hercules claims he has won in a competition. To his disbelief, when Admetus lifts the veil he finds his wife Alcestis, whom he had thought dead but is now restored to him in life. Marchant's scholarly concern for antiquity was evidenced in the 1794 RA catalogue entry for the Hercules Restoring Alcestis to Admetus which simply read: 'Vide Euripides’ ('See Euripides').

The decision to create an intaglio with an original composition (if one which cleaves closely to ancient Roman sculptural precedent) may reflect the importance of the commission, with the design engraved on a stone gifted by the Elector of Saxony to Marchant's most important patron, the Duke of Marlborough. However it may also reflect Marchant's desire to become a Royal Academician. Having returned to London in 1788, it was only in 1809 that Marchant was finally elected to full membership of the Royal Academy of Arts (he was elected ARA in 1791), his campaign having been frustrated by his jealous former teacher Edward Burch and the painter Thomas Lawrence who wrote of nursing 'the most thorough contempt for him as an artist and as a man' (Seidmann, op. cit., p. 26). Marchant nonetheless had powerful supporters and was eventually elected RA in 1809. He died on 24 March 1815 and was buried at Stoke Poges by his friend and patron John Penn (grandson of William Penn, last Governer of Pennsylvania) who commissioned a tomb from John Flaxman.

Sotheby’s is grateful to Dr Claudia Wagner, University of Oxford, for making available the wax impression, and to Dr Ittai Gradel for his kind assistance in studying this intaglio.