The Experienced Officer

The experience of many years at sea is etched on this officer’s face though sadly his name and thus his service record have been lost to history. He wears a powdered wig and blue naval coat with gold braid and anchor buttons in a style that dates the portrait to the 1790s.

The portrait is in fine condition and is presented in the original gold frame with monogrammed initials laid on plaited hair reverse within a foiled dark blue glass surround.

Nathaniel Plimer (1757-1822) was the eldest son of a Shropshire clockmaker, a trade he and his brother were expected to assume to. Instead the two boys chose to run away, reaching London in 1781 where Nathaniel initially worked for the enamellist Henry Bone and took painting lessons alongside his brother with Richard Cosway. He first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1787. Plimer is said to have been ‘a man of the most violent and ungovernable temper, giving way at times to terrible outbursts of violence’ (Williamson 1903).

Ivory Registration: 69D3HM21