Print (Mezzotint Engraving) of J. T. Desaguliers, by Peter Pelham after Hans Hysing, 1725

Mezzotint of the Hysing portrait of Desaguliers, showing him with a magnifying lens and prism. Trimmed close to the plate-mark and mounted on paper or card, framed and glazed. The painter Hysing, based in London but Swedish by birth, was like Desaguliers a member of the social circles of 'virtuosi' in early 18th-century London, which included artists and scientists; he was noted for his 'beautiful hands and draperies', both of which are represented in this engraving.

Its early date (the engraver Pelham includes 1725 in his signature, and emigrated to America in 1727) makes it nearly contemporary with the original painted portrait, at the height of Desaguliers's fame as a London lecturer on 'experimental philosophy'. It is, however, a slightly later impression of Pelham's plate, as the publisher John Bowles moved to the Cornhill address in the early 1730s; this explains why the 'Sold by ...' line, added to the plate at this time, is bolder and in a different style of lettering as compared to the adjacent signatures.

(A later, slightly inferior engraved version is 59227; the Museum's painting of Desaguliers, 56486, attributed to Richardson, shows him in the same pose and attire but with less conventionalised features and without visible instruments.)