William Ward
Wm Ward, Sallad Girl, mezzotint

Sallad Girl (Portrait of Phoebe Hoppner), after a painting by John Hoppner

 Russell 47.IV (?)

mezzotint, 1783, a fine impression of the 3rd or 4th state (of 5)*, trimmed inside the platemark, and just above the publisher's address, though retaining the title, on medium-weight cream laid paper, with an illegible watermark (as it is glued at three corners to a backing sheet), light overall soiling, otherwise in good condition

S. 315x247 mm.

Sallad Girl is undoubtedly one of the most charming prints of the English 18th century. 

William Ward, A.R.A., was one of the most accomplished engravers of his day, appointed to the Duke of York and the Prince of Wales, and produced a considerable number of mezzotint engravings, including a good many in colour.

Published by John Raphael Smith in 1783, the size of the edition of this remarkable mezzotint is not known, but is apparently quite small.  We have however located impressions of the same state of this print in the British Museum (London, which gives the plate dimensions as 382 x 277) and the  Fitzwilliam Museum (Cambridge).  The only impression that we have seen documented in a public sale was in the Henri-Jean Thomas sale in Paris, on 15 December 1947.**


* This mezzotint has been catalogued by Charles E. Russell, English Mezzotint Portraits and their States, 1926, which constitutes a revision of Chaloner Smith's British Mezzotinto Portraits; he identifies 5 states, the final state corresponding to the correction of the title to "SALAD GIRL".

**  The Henri-Jean Thomas impression sold for 125,000 French francs, which according to the INSEE purchasing-power conversion page (http://www.insee.fr/fr/themes/calcul-pouvoir-achat.asp), equals more than 6,800€!