In 1759 the Society for the Promotion of Arts and Manufactures sought to revive the art of gem-cutting in Britain by means of a competition, which was won by Nathaniel Marchant (1739-1816). The rising status of the art can be judged by the fact that in 1771 Marchant’s teacher Edward Burch became the first member of the Royal Academy to be elected by the other members, all of whom had been appointed by the King. This portrait of George III appears with the same date on a prize medal to be awarded by the University of Göttingen in Hanover, and again on a silver medal by Lewis Pingo celebrating the King’s recovery from illness in 1789. Wedgwood produced a medallion bearing the same portrait on the latter occasion. The design may in fact be based on a drawing of the young King by Cipriani dated 1768, which was engraved as the head-piece to William Chambers’s Dissertation on Oriental Gardening (1771).

Inscribed BURCH F / GEORGIVS III / MDCCLXXXV

Catalogue entry adapted from George III & Queen Charlotte: Patronage, Collecting and Court Taste, London, 2004