Lot 152: [FRANKLIN, Benjamin]. B. Franklin of Philadelphia [L.L.D., F.R.S.]. Mezzotint by Edward Fisher (1730-1785) after Mason Chamberlin (d.1787), [London]: sold by Chamberlin in Stewart Street, Old Artillary Ground, Spittalfields [1762].

[FRANKLIN, Benjamin]. B. Franklin of Philadelphia [L.L.D., F.R.S.]. Mezzotint by Edward Fisher (1730-1785) after Mason Chamberlin (d.1787), [London]: sold by Chamberlin in Stewart Street, Old Artillary Ground, Spittalfields [1762].

Large folio (14¾ x 10¾ in). Mezzotint engraving. (Trimmed to within plate-mark, neatly laid down on acid-free paper). Matted and framed. A fine impression of an excellent early image of the American scientist. Seated at a table, with a large wig, Franklin holds a quill in his right hand, in his left hand he holds a closely written document. To the left is a book case and electrical apparatus. Behind, a curtain is drawn aside to show a violent lightning storm striking and damaging a building, an allusion to Franklin's invention of the lightning rod as the result of famous experiments conducted in 1752. Franklin himself preferred this portrait over that of McArdell, a competitor. Sellers, Franklin in Portraiture, pp.220-221.