Lieut-Gen. Sir Charles James Napier G.C.B.

Handcoloured souvenir plate engraved with a portrait of the soldier Lieut-Gen Sir Charles James Napier GCB on horseback. The portrait is embellished with metal foil tinsel ornaments, notably on the dress accessories, armour and weapons. The clothing and horse blanket is of shaded silk. The portrait and handcoloured background scenery has been cut from a paper sheet and mounded on plain card. Such portraits would have been sold for 1d plain as souvenirs for colouring and tinselling at home. Tinselled portraits like this were more commonly made to depict actors and actresses, publishers produced comparatively few prints of other figures.