Edward Burch R.A. (1730-1814) British, circa 1780

signed: BURCH

Overall the condition of the intaglio is excellent with a few minor inclusions consistent with the material. Some specks of dirt on the setting are visible through the crystal. There is some wear, dirt and tarnishing to the mount, consistent with age and handling.
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NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Edward Burch R.A. (1730-1814) was the most celebrated gem carver in England of his time. He was the tutor of Nathaniel Marchant who became equally renowned and is represented alongside his fellow academicians including Sir Joshua Reynolds and George Michael Moser, in Zoffany’s grand painting Life School at the Royal Academy in the Royal Collection. Burch carved gems for the most imminent collectors of the day including the Prince of Wales (later George IV), his brother the Duke of York, 4th Duke of Marlborough, Catherine the Great and the King of Poland. He also worked for Wedgwood and with James Tassie. Examples of his gems are in the Royal Collection, Royal Academy, Fitzwilliam and British Museums, Hermitage and the Walters Art Gallery. Burch’s intaglio of the actor David Garrick was sold en bloc with all the gems from the collection of the late Nathaniel Mayer Victor, 3rd Lord Rothschild, see Treasures from the Rothschild Collection, Sotheby’s, 12 December 2003, lot 68 and another of Sir Isaac Newton as part of the Elliot Collection, Christie’s, London, 20 November 2013, lot 231.

As is the case with other of Burch’s gems, an Alexander the Great is described and recorded in a cast by Philipp Daniel Lippert, Dactyliotheca Universalis…,1755-1762, vol II, no. 218.

RELATED LITERATURE
J. Kagan, Gem engraving in Britain from antiquity to the present, 2010, pp. 180-181; G. Seidmann, ‘The Diversity of Edward Burch’, Le gemme incise nel Settecento e Ottocento, 1998, pp. 17-26