Jonathan Munn: P.14797-R

Current Location: In storage

Titles

Jonathan Munn

Maker(s)

Printmaker: Baldrey, John
Draughtsman: Baldrey, Joshua Kirby (After)

Entities

Description

Stipple engraved oval medallion, half-length portrait of an elderly gentleman wearing a short, white powdered wig, a coat, waistcoat and white cravat. Head turned slightly towards the right, looking over the viewer's right shoulder. Sitter's identity, date and age at death are engraved below: 'Jonathan Munn / died Feby. 13, 1792, / Aged 78'. Production details at lower left and right: 'JK[in monogram]. Baldrey Pinxt / I.Baldrey Sculpt.'. An inscription in graphite at lower left: 'He was a tin-worker in Camb / see As[?]l Hist'. See Notes. A pendant to P.14798-R, which is a portrait by Joshua Kirby Baldrey of Mary Munn, whom, it is presumed, was the sitter's wife. Jonathan Munn was described as an 'ingenious tin-plate worker of Cambridge' in Brayley and Britton's _A Topographical and Historical Description of the County of Cambridge_ (p.40). In 1765, Munn helped Roger Long (1680-1770), astronomer and Master of Pembroke College, Cambridge, to build an early version of a planetarium in the grounds of Pembroke College. The structure was an 18ft-wide hollow sphere, made from copper, it's inner surface painted to represent the stars and constellations. The sphere could seat up to thirty people and could be spun around when a winch was operated. The structure was reported by Brayley and Britton to be in a woeful state of repair c. 1820 ('It is now very much damaged. Part of the sheathing is destroyed and the remainder is covered with rust and verdigrease [sic].'.) and it was dismantled some time after 1871.