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1985-168,2, Print
Her Most Excellent Majesty CHARLOTTE Queen of Great Britain &c.
1985-168,2, Print

Her Most Excellent Majesty CHARLOTTE Queen of Great Britain &c.

Date1762
After work by Thomas Frye (ca. 1710 - 1762)
Engraver Thomas Frye (ca. 1710 - 1762)
MediumBlack & white mezzotint engraving
DimensionsOverall: 17 1/4 × 13in. (43.8 × 33cm) Other (Plate): 13 3/4 × 10in. (34.9 × 25.4cm)
Credit LineMuseum Purchase
Object number1985-168,2
DescriptionThe lower margin reads: "Her Most Excellent Majesty CHARLOTTE Queen of Great Britain &c./ FRYE ad vivum delineavit./ Published according to Act of Parliament May 24.th. 1762, and Sold at the GOLDEN HEAD in Hatton Garden.
Label TextThomas Frye was one of the most significant artists working in mezzotint engraving in the eighteenth-century. He was born outside Dublin around 1710, and moved to England at age twenty to work as a painter and engraver. He gained notoriety as the manager at the Bow Porcelain Factory, where he helped develop a recipe for bone china. After resigning his position at Bow, he returned to the medium of mezzotint. Frye’s mastery of this this engraving process is displayed through his ability to achieve dramatic variation in tone, characterized by velvety depths and luminous highlights, that render his subjects both sensitive and shockingly life-like.
InscribedA small piece of laid paper, with measurements of OH: 2" x OW: 4 3/4", is pinned to the lower margin with the following inscription in eighteenth-century handwriting: "The King and Queen comes/ to wait on Miss Brown/ and requests to attend her/ presented to Miss Brown Idstone [?] by/ General Garrant [?]"