Antiquaries at Pola: Sir Henry Mainwaring Bt (1726-1797), Jacob Houblon (b.1736), George Harry Grey, 5th...

Thomas Patch (Exeter 1725 - Florence 1782). Oil painting on canvas, Antiquaries at Pola: Sir Henry Mainwaring Bt (1726-1797), Jacob Houblon (b.1736), George Harry Grey, 5th Earl of Stamford (1737-1819) and the Reverend Jonan Lipyeatt by Thomas Patch (Exeter 1725 - Florence 1782), signed and dated, 1760. Inscribed: VOYAGE FROM VENICE TO POLA IN ISTRIA 1760 and with the name of the four tourists. Mainwaring is seated on a Roman altar at the left; beside him Houblon stands, extravagantly dressed in check trousers and red-lined hooded black cloak, a pistol in his belt; and next to him Lord Stamford in a similar cloak; Lipyeatt in the foreground is bending over a marble fragment which he is deciphering. A fragmentary marble head caricatures the features of Patch and his spaniel, with water gushing from his mouth, appears to represent a life-like fountain; a lateen-rigged boat at the right, a servant carrying baggage and in the background the amphitheatre at Pola. Pola or Pula, is opposite Venice on the coast of Croatia. Dunham Massey, Cheshire (Accredited Museum)