Moore, Samuel (fl.1680-1720); Medley: a trompe l'oeil representation of engravings, pages from illustrated books, a playing card etc. Pencil, pen and ink and watercolour

A trompe l'oeil representation of engravings, pages from illustrated books, a playing card etc.

Purchased, 1944

Historical significance: Samuel Moore (fl.1680-1720) appears to have been employed at the customs house in London. He designed and engraved two of the plates for Francis Sandford's History of the Coronation of James II and of Queen Mary (1685) and the plates in the Coronation Procession of William and Mary. George Vertue's notes imply that he thought Moore to have been the inventor of the medley, a trompe-l'œil montage of imitations of various drawn, written, and printed materials. He presented the present drawing, which deceptively copies various prints, to Robert Harley while the latter was speaker of the House of Commons between 1701 and 1704. Medleys subsequently became quite fashionable. Moore also engraved some costume plates.

(Adapted from the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography entry on Samuel Moore.)

This work is referred to in the Oxford DNB entry for Samuel Moore. Robert Harley, to whom, according to the inscription, the work was presented, was Speaker of the House of Commons between 1701 and 1704.

E.128-1944