Joseph Skelton (1783 – 1871) after George Vertue (1684 – 1756)
Oxford Almanack 1744

Engraving
51 x 44 cm

A historic engraving featured in the 1744 Oxford Almanack. This almanac was published annually by the Oxford University Press for the University of Oxford from 1674 to 2019. These almanacs traditionally included engravings and information about Oxford University, including the Heads of Colleges and a university calendar. As was therefore typical for the engravings featured in these collections, this work depicts Pembroke’s august founders and early architecture, which later formed part of the artist’s 1828 ‘Pietas Oxoniensis, or Records of Oxford Founders’.

George Vertue FSA was an English engraver and antiquary. He was apprenticed to a heraldic engraver in France, then worked for the Flemish engraver Michael Vandergucht before setting up on his own. He was also a student of the English portrait painter and copyist Thomas Gibson. He became the official engraver to the Society of Antiquaries when it was founded in 1717, and his patrons included several British aristocrats. He is buried in Westminster Abbey.

Joseph Skelton was an a topographical and antiquarian engraver. He lived in Oxford for a time and became a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London. His Oxford publications include the Oxonia Antiqua Illustrata; Antiquities of Oxfordshire, from drawings by F. Mackenzie; and the Pietas Oxoniensis, or Records of Oxford Founders.

Condition: Modern restrike with printer’s mistakes: small ill-printed area lower left, two 6″ long creases to right side.

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