An extensive view of a port with sailors unloading cargo on a quay

The inscription on the label attached to the backboard (which incorrectly reads Worcester rather that Gloucester), indicates that this and the next lot entered the collection of Henry, 5th Duke of Grafton, in 1844 at the death of his aunt Princess Sophia Mathilda, who in turn inherited them from her father, the Duke of Gloucester and brother of King George III. Consul Smith's collection contained 33 drawings by Marco Ricci which were all of the same size and technique as the present sheet. It is most likely that the King presented these two drawings to his brother, the Duke of Gloucester, shortly after he acquired the collection from Smith in 1762 (A. Scarpa Sonino, Marco Ricci, Milan, 1991, nos. 93-124).