ATTRIBUTED TO NATHANIEL MARCHANT (1739-1816), ENGLISH, LATE 18TH CENTURY INTAGLIO WITH A SOW, A MARLBOROUGH GEM

George Spencer, 4th Duke of Marlborough (1739-1817), Blenheim Palace Oxfordshire; 

thence by family descent to John Winston Spencer-Churchill, 7th Duke of Marlborough (1822-1883), Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire;

David Bromilow, Bitteswell Hall, Lutterworth, until 1898;

by descent to Julia Harriet Mary Jary (née Bromilow);

Christie, Manson and Woods London, Catalogue of the Marlborough Gems: Being a Collection of Works in Cameo and Intaglio Formed by George, 3rd Duke of Marlborough, 27 June 1899, lot 695;

acquired at the above sale by Shadforth for £1.15S.

M. H. Story-Maskelyne, The Marlborough Gems: Being a Collection of Works in Cameo and Intaglio Formed by George, Third Duke of Marlborough, London, 1870, no. 695;

G. Seidmann, 'Nathaniel Marchant, Gem-engraver 1739-1816', Walpole Society, vol. LIII, 1987, App. no. 6;

J. Boardman, D. Scarisbrick, C. Wagner, and E. Zwierlein-Diehl: The Marlborough Gems, Oxford, 2009, p. 297, no. 726

This charming carnelian intaglio with a pig is one of the famed Marlborough Gems, one of the greatest collections of glyptics amassed in the 18th century. Assembled by the 4th Duke of Marlborough, the group included around 800 pieces and included the gem collections of the Gonzaga Dukes of Mantua (later acquired by the Earl of Arundel in the 17th century); William Ponsonby, 2nd Earl of Bessborough (1704-1793); Gabriel Medina, a Livorno-based Jewish merchant; as well as those acquired disparately by the 4th Duke himself. The gems were sold as a collection in the 19th century to David Bromilow, whose daughter later took them to public auction at Christie's in 1899. A number of Marlborough gems have appeared at auction over the past few years. These include, recently, one of the stars of the collection, a 1st-century black chalcedony intaglio with Antinous, which fetched $2,115,000 at Christies New York on 29 April 2019, lot 37.

Story-Maskelyne attributed the present intaglio to the celebrated English Neoclassical gem engraver Nathaniel Marchant (1739-1816). Marchant worked in London and Rome and was a pupil of Edward Burch, exhibiting at the Royal Academy between 1781-1811. George Spencer, 4th Duke of Marlborough was one of Marchant's most important early patrons. The engraver was later made 'Sculptor of Gems' to the Prince of Wales and then 'Chief Engraver to His Majesty' in 1799. He later became Engraver to the Royal Mint and at the Stamp Office. The attribution of the present intaglio to Marchant was left as an open question by Gertrud Siedmann in her comprehensive study on the engraver. The quality is certainly sufficiently high to be attributed to Marchant and the characterisation of the pig is both amusing and endearing.