Copy 2 is a loose-leaf portfolio [05/4366]. Its title-page has been cut and pasted to the upper cover; its plates are mounted on larger secondary support sheets.
Contents
[T.p.] - The Seven Ages [quotation from Shakespeare's 'As you like it', II:7] - [Plates].
Responsibility Note
No plate is signed.
Each carries the imprint of the publisher, 'Art-Union of London', and the date '1850'.
Summary Note
The seven parts played by one man in his time, as outlined by Shakespeare in As you like it, Act II, scene 7, are 'the infant', 'the schoolboy', 'the lover', 'a soldier', 'the justice', 'the pantaloon', and 'second childishness'. Each of these is accorded one plate here - preceded by a plate showing all seven together.
The second of the Academy's two sets is better printed.
Provenance
[Copy 1:] Purchased for RA Library in 1870 (see 'Librarian's Report for the Year 1870, RA Annual Report, Appendix No. 6, p. 26). [Copy 2:] Presented to the Library of the Royal Academy in 1871 by the Council of the Art Union of London (see 'Library Report for the Year 1871', RA Annual Report, Appendix No. 7, p. 31).
Copy Note
The title page of copy 2 is inscribed in ink, 'Presented by the Council of The [illegible] of [illegible] To the Library of the Royal Academy - F.S. Watson Sec.'
Binding Note
[Copy 1:] 19th-century half green morocco, green cloth-covered boards, the upper cover lettered, 'Shakspeare's Seven Ages. - Daniel Maclise.'
[Copy 2:] 19th-century half red morocco over plain boards; upper cover carrying pasted-on title-page.