A borderline case is that of the large engravings after paintings executed in the time of Henry VIII: ‘The representation of the Field of the Cloth of Gold and other paintings illustrative of the events of this reign (at Windsor and elsewhere) were probably by foreigners, but as some doubt exists on this point…the prints from that painting and others of the kind are included in this folio’. Equally ‘Voerst and Vorsterman cannot be included in the English school of Engravers, but Wenceslaus Hollar … though a native of Prague worked so long in England that he may perhaps be so classed’. With such must be ranked Mabuse, Jansens, and others of greater note for example Holbein, Rubens and Vandyck’. While Lely and Kneller were considered admissible, ‘foreigners who, however much employed in Britain were equally celebrated on the Continent cannot be included in such a list. The striking prominence of these three artists within the album is one instance of the compiler’s firm views about which artists and engravers constitute the British School. The second half of the album, in fact, consists almost entirely of portraits after three artists: Peter Lely, Willem Wissing, and Godfrey Kneller. Thereafter the prints alternate between those published retrospectively for ‘the historian or the antiquary’ and those of seventeenth century printmakers such as Passe, Hollar and Faithorne depicting contemporary subjects. However, only the first 25 or so plates in the album depict subjects predating the practice of engraving in Britain (the compiler makes reference to Thomas Gemini’s copies of anatomical engravings in Vesalius’ De Humani Corporis Fabrica, eight of which are included in the album, as, in Ames’ opinion, ‘the earliest line engravings executed in England’). This statement (and the broad focus on British art from Roman times to the seventeenth century in the prefatory text) leads one to suppose that the album will contain mostly of antiquarian prints, and indeed there are numerous of historical prints by engravers such as James Basire and George Vertue. To those earlier specimens the present first volume of the British School is nevertheless devoted… '

Before that period, except in a very few instances, the specimens may interest the historian or the antiquary rather than the artist. 'the interest of a collection of engravings illustrative of the British School can only be said to begin with works dating from the early part of the eighteenth century. The compiler of the album takes the view that:

The album is in some sense a visual history of Britain since the Roman era, also including lists of prominent British artists and engravers (many of whom are not represented within the album) and another list of sources to consult.

This album is prefaced by a nine-page text entitled ‘Notes relating to the early history of British Art to assist in forming a collection of illustrative engravings’.

This print is one of 180 plates which make up the 'British School I' album, presumably compiled in the early nineteenth century.

Art medieval knight