Sir Henry Spelman (Henricus Spelmannus Eques Auratus)
William Faithorne the Elder British
After Cornelius Janssen British
Sitter Sir Henry Spelman British
Not on view
Faithorne is remembered as the most skilled native-born English engraver of the seventeenth-century. He was apprenticed to the print-seller William Peake (the son of James I's court painter Robert Peake) but probably trained by John Payne. In the English Civil War, Faithorne served as a royalist ensign, was imprisoned after the fall of the garrison at Basing House, then fled to France, where he gained extensive additional connections and experience. Back in London by 1652, he was appointed copper engraver to the king after the Restoration of 1660. This example of his work was made during the latter period and represents the antiquarian, historian and philologist Sir Henry Spelman.
