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Thomas Frye (1710-1762) came from Dublin with considerable skill as a painter. His early portrait of Frederick, Prince of Wales, was commissioned in 1736; it was destroyed by German fire bombs on London in the early stages of World War II. It is an interesting fact that among Frye's latest portraits were Frederick's son, the young King George III and his bride Queen Charlotte (their mezzotints are illustrated on the page entitled Important Personalities of This Period). Although he continued painting during his years as founder and director of the Bow Porcelain Factory, he apparently accelerated these activities after his retirement from Bow in 1759. His early death in 1762 was probably caused by the hazards of the porcelain trade including exposure to lead. His obituary published in Gentleman's Magazine in 1764 stated that his portraits "had the correctness of Van Dyke and the colouring of Rubens". The portrait below of naval officer James Hanson (1735-1781) was painted by Frye in 1761-62. It descended in the Hanson family until its sale at Christies's in 1986 but it was not known at the time of Dr. Michael Wynne's authoritative articles in Burlington Magazine in 1972 and 1982 which listed some 81 portraits by the "ingenious" Mr. Frye, painter and porcelain-maker.
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