Rowlandson (Thomas)

a wonderfully characteristic, and characterful, caricature portrait, bust-length in red coat with yellow lapels and white stock. The subject is possibly Captain James Cope, author of ‘A New History of the East-Indies’, an account of the East India Company’s dealings with the Mughal court, published in 1754, but he died, at Fort St. George, in India, in 1755, just before the artist’s birth, so is probably unlikely,

pen and ink with watercolour, 180 x 135 mm. (7 x 5 3/8 in), titled in pencil, lower right, mounted at corners onto a contemporary buff paper support,