Attributed to Edward Burch R.A. (1730-1814), British, late 18th century | Intaglio with Minerva

This beautiful intaglio is very close to another depicting Alexander the Great which is signed by Burch and was sold in these rooms on 9 July 2015, lot 116. Note also the similar seal mount. 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.

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