Charles Grey, Earl Grey

Biography:

John Bruce (fl.1824-1867)  

Engraver, printseller, publisher, printer, bookseller and bookbinder, born in London about 1790. He is also the same ‘Bruce’ who produced numerous views and illsutrated guides of Brighton.

Bruce is known for a small series of silhouette of well known contemporary figures, published 1825-35. All are signed, ‘I. Bruce’. All the silhouette prints bear either the address 85 Farringdon Street, London, or 3 Somerset Place, Brighton. The other portraits are: William IV, Duke of Wellington, Henry Peter Brougham, Earl Grey, John first Earl Russell, Daniel O’Connell. Earl Grey stands before a table bearing an inkstand and a large scroll marked ‘REPORT’; Daniel O’Connell is seated on a House of Commons bench. All these details are well shown.  The prints are signed (below, on the left) ‘I. Bruce’; on the right, either the single address, or the two addresses, are printed. The sitter’s name is printed below in capital letters, and a further inscription (as in the print of O’Connell) is also included. None of these silhouette prints that I have seen are dated, and it is not certain that they were all necessarily published in the years during which the original silhouettes were created (presumably by Bruce himself).