John Bird. Mezzotint by V. Green, 1776, after J. Lewis.

London (Salisbury Street, Strand) : Published ... by V. Green, Engraver to his Majesty &c, Decr. 2. 1776.

1 print : mezzotint

John Bird of London, who furnished the chief observatories of the world, with the most capital astronomical instruments divided by him after an improved method of his own, in a manner superior to any executed before, for which, and many other Improvements in the construction of astronomical instruments, he was honoured with a considerable recompence from the Commissioners of Longitude. Died the 31st March 1776, in the 67th year of his age. Lewis pinxit ; Engraved by V. Green, engraver to his Majesty, & to the Elector Palatine. The book on the table is inscribed "Constru... ... ral qua...": it is Bird's work The method of constructing mural quadrants exemplified by a description of the brass mural quadrant in the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, published in 1768. The technical drawing or print of a quadrant on the table is inscribed "J. Bird sculp."

Attributed to John Lewis (né Johann Ludwig), born ca. 1740, a miniature painter from Hanover who moved to London and anglicised his name as John Lewis. His sons, the artists George R Lewis (b. 1782) and F.C. Lewis (b. 1779), both used at various times the address Salisbury Street, Strand, the address of Valentine Green from ca. 1770 (Whitman, loc. cit. no. 16) until 1778, but were themselves too young to have produced the present portrait. Bird's instrument-workshop at York Buildings, south of the Strand, was a short walk westwards from the Lewis house in Salisbury Street, Strand

R. Burgess, Portraits of doctors & scientists in the Wellcome Institute, London 1973, no. 308.1

A. Whitman, British mezzotinters: Valentine Green, London, 1902, no. 63, pp. 64-65, and p. 14 (Green moved out of Salisbury St in October 1778)

J. Chaloner Smith, British mezzotinto portraits, part 2, London 1883, p. 537, Valentine Green no. 9

Wellcome Collection 1120i