Edw. Colston Esq.

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Artist/Maker	Norton & Sons (publisher) Pether, William (engraver) Richardson, Jonathan the Elder (artist)
Place of origin	Britain (printed)

Half-length portrait. in an oval border, turned slightly to left, looking to front and with right hand tucked inside gown.

Object details

Categories	Portraits Prints Slavery & Abolitionism
Object type	Print
Title	Edw. Colston Esq. (assigned by artist)
Materials and techniques	Mezzotint on paper Paper Mezzotint
Brief description	Portrait of Edward Colston within an oval border. Mezzotint by William Pether after Jonathan Richardson, 1817.
Physical description	Half-length portrait. in an oval border, turned slightly to left, looking to front and with right hand tucked inside gown.
Dimensions	Height: 55.4cm Width: 34.8cm Measured by SH 15/03/2011.
Style	British School
Marks and inscriptions	'Edw. Colston Esq. The Philanthropist! Born in Bristol. Died Octr. 11th. 1721. AEt. 85. John Richardson Pinxt. Wm. Pether Sculpt. 1817 Sold by Norton & Sons Corn Street Bristol. Price 12 Sh.gs' (Lettered)
Production	The dated '1817' has been added to the print. This state is probably a later one than those mentioned in John Chaloner Smith's British Mezzotinto Portraits.
Subjects depicted	Philanthropist Merchant Man Colston, Edward
Bibliographic references	Smith, John Chaloner. British Mezzotinto Portraits. London: Henry Sotheran & Co., 1883. Vol. 3, p. 980. Edward Colston (1636-1721) was a merchant and Tory MP who was involved in the Atlantic slave trade as a member of the Royal African Company (RAC) from 1680 to 1692. The RAC had been formed in 1660 by the royal family (House of Stuart) and City of London merchants, granting themselves monopoly rights over English trading along the west coast of Africa. By 1680 and Colston's involvement in the port city of Bristol, approximately 5000 slaves each year were transported from Africa primarily to Caribbean plantations, sold at a price of around £18 per person. Around 1 in 5 would not survive the inhumane conditions of the journey. He was temporarily the deputy governor of the company but stepped back in 1692, continuing in the slave trade as a private operator. It is estimated that around 500,000 enslaved African men, women and children were traded by Bristol merchants alone. Colston never married so having no heirs, he decided to bestow a large proportion of his wealth to the city of Bristol, funding hospitals, schools, churches and almshouses for the poor. It is for this reason that many Bristol buildings and monuments are dedicated to him, many of which have been the subject of long campaigns to be renamed due to his role in the history of slavery. In 2017, the music venue Colston Hall announced it would change its name following refurbishment and is now the Bristol Beacon. An 1895 statue of Colston by John Cassidy made the headlines in June 2020 when it was defaced and pushed into the harbour during Black Lives Matter demonstrations. The direct action led to the removal of many other statues commemorating Colston's contemporaries around the UK including fellow slave traders, Sir John Cass in Stratford, and Robert Milligan in Tower Hamlets. Just two days after the toppling, a Commission for Diversity in the Public Realm was launched by the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, to review plaques and memorials of figures with links to the slave trade and to focus on improving representation of people of colour in UK public art.
Collection	Prints, Drawings & Paintings Collection
Accession number	21855

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Record created	June 30, 2009
Record URL	https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O646826/edw-colston-esq-print-pether-william/

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