Joseph Whipple of Portsmouth, NH, 1805
Copperplate on paper, 2.25 inch-diameter, engraved portrait on sheet of paper, underneath window mat with gilded brass edging within a carved and painted oval frame.
Joseph Whipple (1738-1816) was a noted Portsmouth merchant and the brother of William Whipple, signer of the Declaration of Independence. He served briefly as a colonel in the New Hampshire militia and was a member of the New Hampshire General Court, 1776–78, 1782–83, and 1785. From 1786 to 1789 he was collector of customs at Portsmouth, and in August 1789 George Washington appointed him to the same post under the new Federal administration. Whipple was originally a Federalist but became a Republican in 1794 and was removed as collector by John Adams in 1798, but reappointed in 1802 by Thomas Jefferson. He took part in the early settlement of the White Mountains, founding the town of Jefferson, New Hampshire. This engraved portrait of Whipple has been previously misidentified as General Horatio Gates in earlier studies of St. Memin. Provenance: deaccessioned from the Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2013.
Price: $450.00