Anecdotes of painting in England : with some account of the principal artists and incidental notes on other arts
Horace Walpole's 1765 Anecdotes of Painting in England, printed by Thomas Kirgate at Strawberry Hill, is a history of English painters and engravers written for connoisseurs and collectors. The plates are oval-framed engraved portraits of artists such as Prince Rupert, Robert White, George Vertue and Robert van Voerst, many showing the sitter in a feathered hat or full wig with a lace cravat. A designer could take from them the oval cartouche framing, the crisp hatched shading of copper engraving, and the formal period dress.
