mentioned by Evelyn in his 'Sculptura.' But Lombart's reputation rests on his portraits, which, though somewhat hard and deficient in colour, have much merit; of these the best are the twelve half-lengths after Vandyck, known as 'The Countesses,' the set consisting of ten ladies of that rank with the young Earls of Pembroke and Arundel. His largest plate, an equestrian portrait imitated from Vandyck's well-known composition of Charles I under an arch, with a page substituted for M. de St. Antoine, underwent curious changes. It is assumed to have originally represented the king, though no impression in that state is known, and the head must have been immediately altered {perhaps before publication) to that of Oliver Cromwell; later it was again altered to Charles, and then once more became Cromwell. Other good English portraits by Lombart are those of Robert Walker the painter; Cromwell, half length with a page, after R.Walker; Sir Samuel Moreland, bart., after Lely; Brian Watson, D.D.; Jeremy Taylor (frontispiece to his 'Holy Living and Dying,' 1650); and John Ogilby, after Lely (frontispiece to his 'Virgil' above mentioned). Lombart appears to have returned to France soon after the restoration of Charles II, his portrait of the Duc de Grammont, which was engraved there, being dated 1663. During the remainder of his life, which was passed in Paris, he executed some fine portraits of eminent persons, chiefly French, as well as sacred subjects after Raphael, Poussin, Champagne, and others. Lombart died in Paris on 30 Oct. 1681.
[Vertue's collections in Brit. Mus. Addit. MS. 23078; Walpole's Anecdotes, 1849, p. 920; J. Strutt's Dict. of Engravers, 1786; Cat. of the Sutherland Collection; A. Firmin-Didot's Les Graveurs de Portraits en France, 1875-7.]
LOMBE, Sir THOMAS (1685–1739), introducer of silk-throwing machinery into England, eldest son of Henry Lombe, worsted weaver, of Norwich, was born on 5 Sept. 1685. The father died in 1695, leaving his sons Thomas and John under the care of his executors, while the younger sons Benjamin and John were to be brought up by their mother, Henry Lombe's second wife. The family seems to have been settled in Norwich from a very early period, and the name occurs continually in local records. In the early part of the eighteenth century Lombe found his way to London, where he was apprenticed to Samuel Totton, mercer, and was admitted to the freedom of the Mercers' Company in 1707. In the same year he became a freeman of the city of London, and he eventually established himself as a merchant. In 1718 he obtained a patent (No. 422) for 'a new invention of three sorts of engines never before made or used in Great Britaine, one to winde the finest raw silk, another to spin, and the other to twist the finest Italian raw silk into organzine in great perfection, which was never before done in this country.' A specification of the patent was duly enrolled, in conformity with the conditions of the letters patent, in the petty bag office, but the roll was lost, and was only discovered in 1867, when the specification was printed by the commissioners of patents for the first time. Lombe says: 'I declare that by constant application and endeavours for severall years past, and employing a great many agents and workmen both here and in foreigne parts, I have at very great expense and hazards found out, discovered, and brought into this country the art of making the three capital engines' mentioned in the title of his patent. The description of the machinery is not very clear, and is interspersed with numerous Italian technical terms, the use of which the inventor justifies by alleging that there were no English words to denote the various details of silk-throwing machinery. The principal agent employed by Lombe was his halfbrother John (see below), who, it is said, went to Italy, then the principal seat of the silk manufacture, and made himself thoroughly familiar with the various processes. This journey has been represented as a romantic enterprise full of danger, and necessitating the adoption of stratagems and disguises for its accomplishment. The Italians were said to have jealously guarded the secret of the manufacture, but it seems to have escaped notice that a very complete description of the Italian silk-throwing machinery was published as early as 1607 at Padua by V. Zonca in his 'Novo Teatro di machine,' further editions of which appeared in 1621 and 1656. The book contains engravings which show the construction of the machinery in great detail, and to an expert Zonca's book is much more satisfactory than Lombe's specification. In 1692, moreover, a number of persons had unsuccessfully petitioned for leave to be incorporated into a company for the purpose of introducing the Italian machinery and starting a manufactory in this country (Home Office Petition Entry Book, 1680-93, p. 293). But, notwithstanding, the Lombes are entitled to the credit of having introduced into this country a new and important trade.
They set up a mill at Derby in 1719 (5 Geo. I, c. 8; Cunningham, English Industry, ii. 350) on an island in the river Derwent soon after the grant of the patent, and eventually it became a prosperous concern. Boswell records a visit to the mill in Sep-
