A three-quarter-length portrait of George Anson (1697–1762) in a velvet coat and wig. He holds the hilt of his sword in his left hand and a baton of command in his right. Leaning on a cannon, he stands in front of a rocky cliff with a naval engagement in the background. Lettered beneath the image with the title, ‘The Right Honble. George Anson Lord Viscount Tedworth Admiral of the Blue.’ Also lettered with the production details and publication line: ‘Johnson fecit 1747 / Printed & Sold by M. Overton at the golden Buck in Fleet Street.’ The plate for this print was originally engraved in 1740 by John Faber the Younger after Allan Ramsay’s oil painting of Charles Stewart (see BHC3037 for Ramsay’s painting and PAD4687 for Faber’s print). It was been cut down and substantially altered in 1747 to make this portrait of Anson, which was published by Mary Overton. The inscription on this state of the print mistakenly describes Anson as ‘Viscount Tedworth’, when in fact he was ennobled in June 1747 as Baron Soberton. George Anson is best remembered for his rather fraught circumnavigation of 1740–44, from which he returned immensely rich from his capture the Spanish treasure ship 'Nuestra Senora de Covadonga' off the Philippines. He secured victory over the French at the first Battle of Finisterre in May 1747 and later proved a very able naval administrator as First Lord of the Admiralty during the Seven Years War. The publisher of this print, Mary Overton, was married to the print-publisher Philip Overton and ran the business for three years after his death in 1745, until her marriage in 1748 to James Sayer, whose brother Robert took over the firm. (Updated May 2019.)