拍品專文
Willam Pulteney (1684-1764) was elected Member of the Parliament for Hedon, Yorkshire in 1705, a constituency he was to represent until 1734, when at the General election he was returned for Middlesex. Soon after the 1741 election, George II invited Pulteney to form a government. However, he refused to accept any post in it, but accepted a peerage, becoming Earl of Bath on July 13, 1742. In 1714 he married Anna Maria, daughter of John Gumley of Isleworth, which greatly increased his wealth and social standing. His reputation was of a man who had too great a love for money, but who was described during his lifetime as 'by all accounts the greatest House of Commons orator that had ever appeared'