Portrait of William Anne Hollis, 4th Earl of Essex, Presenting a Cup to Thomas Clutterbuck of Watford  1785

Thomas Gainsborough painted the fourth Earl of Essex presenting a silver cup to Thomas Clutterbuck, a member of a prominent local family and also sheriff of the English county of Hertfordshire. In a letter to Clutterbuck that originally accompanied the cup, the Earl of Essex expressed his gratitude and regard for his friend: [br] It has long been my inclination to give y...