Object Type
This print is an engraving, an image made by cutting lines into the surface of a flat piece of metal, inking the plate and then transferring the ink held in the lines onto a sheet of paper.

People
Sir William Paston (possibly 1610-1663) was a member of a celebrated Norfolk family, the Pastons. He was a collector and connoisseur. He and his first wife, Lady Katherine Bertie, turned their house, Oxnead Hall, Norfolk, into a treasure-house of statues, busts, furniture, paintings and a marvellous range of objets d'art.

William Faithorne (possibly born in 1616, died 1691) who engraved these prints, specialised in portraits, usually after drawings he had made himself. Faithorne was for a time exiled to the Continent during the English Civil War of 1642-1646. He went to Paris, where he took up the French portrait engravers' practice of making portrait drawings from life. These were used as preparatory drawings for engravings but also became works of art in their own right. Faithorne's new skill resulted in a series of very fine portrait drawings. On his return to England he continued to work as an engraver. He also set himself up as a publisher and opened a shop where he dealt in imported prints and artists' materials.

Ownership & Use
This print is one of a pair. The accompanying print is of Sir William Paston's second wife, Margaret Hewitt (died 1669). Such prints would be produced as private plates for sitters such as the Pastons. They may also have been used as wall decoration or kept with other prints in albums and portfolios, or even perhaps bound in with books about the history of the county.