Captain James Cook

This separately issued engraving by Sherwin after the oil portrait by Nathaniel Dance is considered to be the best likeness of Cook done. A rare issue with the title printed with open letters. It portrays Cook in captain’s full-dress uniform, consisting of a navy blue jacket and white breeches, white waistcoat embellished with gold braid and buttons. He wears a grey wig or his own hair powdered and holds his own chart of the Southern hemisphere while his right hand points to the east coast of Australia. Cook had returned from his second voyage in 1775 and had sat for this portrait, commissioned by Sir Joseph Banks, ‘for a few hours before dinner’ on 25 May 1776. Banks had sailed with Cook on his first voyage in the ‘Endeavour’ and took an influential interest in his subsequent ones. This portrait had hung over the fireplace in the library of Bank’s London house. Samwell, surgeon’s mate in the ‘Resolution’ on the second voyage and surgeon on the ‘Discovery’ on the third, thought it ‘a most excellent likeness … and … the only one I have seen that bears any resemblance to him’. References PFAI pg 73