Lettered inside image, lower right: "Pubd. Jany. 3d. 1792. by H. Humphrey N.18 Old Bond Street"; lettered below image, lower center: "A SPHERE, Projecting against a PLANE. | Definitions from Euclid. | Def: 1st. B:4th - A Sphere, is a Figure bounded by a Convex surface; it is the most perfect of all forms; its Properties are generated | from its Centre; and it possesses a larger Area than any other Figure. - Def: 2d. B: 1st A Plane, is a perfectly even & regular Surface, | it is the most Simple of all Figures; it has neither the Properties of Length or of Breadth; and when applied over so closely to a SPHERE, can | only touch its Superfic[i]es, without being able to enter it - Vide. Euclid, illustrated; by the Honble Mrs. Circumference."
Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection