ATTRIBUTED TO WILLIAM BROWN (1748-1825), ENGLISH, LATE 18TH/ EARLY 19TH CENTURY | INTAGLIO WITH HERCULES

The present intaglio is very close to impressions by James Tassie (no. 15320) and William Tassie (nos. 1928 and 1929) which are recorded as being by William Brown. The latter impressions are double portraits but there is a clear compositional similarity particularly with no. 1929 in the arrangement of the lion skin and paw. William Brown was a significant English gem engraver who exhibited at the Royal Academy between 1770 and 1830. His most important patron was Catherine the Great of Russia, but he also counted George Prince of Wales (later George IV) as one of his patrons. See the intaglio sold in these rooms on 10 December 2015, lot 433. William Brown worked with his brother Charles (1749-1795) first in Gloucester Street and then in Pall Mall from 1776. There is a trade-card for the brothers at 4 Pall Mall from 1781 in the British Museum (inv. no. D,2.2249). Brown exhibited the subject of Hercules a number of times at the Royal Academy but the present intaglio does not appear to have been one of them.