Pieter Schenck was one of a number of Dutch mezzotint engravers at the turn of the eighteenth century who pirated mezzotints by their English contemporaries. In this work Schenck appropriated all but the face of Grinling Gibbons from Smith's portrait of the English sculptor after Godfrey Kneller, replacing his likeness with that of Dutchman Pieter van der Plass. In an attribution rare for its time, Schenck credits Kneller with the invention of the composition in an inscription on his mezzotint.