The celebrated architect, Inigo Jones, is shown facing front with his head turned slightly to the left. He is bearded with long curling hair and wears a plain cap and a buttoned coat with a wide collar.

In the earliest inventories of Soane's Museum, 1837, this item is described as 'a cast in plaster from a medallion of Inigo Jones, Arch^t'. However, later curators have described this small item as 'from an intaglio'.

There is an almost identical portrait intaglio of Inigo Jones (an oval smoky quartz), perhaps by gem engraver Edward Burch, c.1770-1800, in the collection of the V&A from which this may have been cast (V&A accession number 3339-1856). It's provenance is unknown. The V&A catalogue notes that the attribution to Burch is not supported by documentation but that this gem could have been part of Burch's series of British 'worthies' (which includes Shakespeare and Newton). The original portrait on which this and other likenesses is based is Anthony van Dyck's portrait of Jones, c.1633, now in the Hermitage, St; Petersburg.

Soane owned an ivory rectangular plaque of Jones, based on the same original, which he purchased from Edward Burch (SM S46).

S46, provenance