When Sir Francis Drake returned from his extended trip
into the New World (with an enormous bounty from his pirate
exploits against the Spanish), he presented Queen Elizabeth
the First with a jewel token commemorating his circumnavigation
of the world. It bore a ship with an ebony hull, enameled gold
taken from a prize off the Pacific coast of Mexico, and an African
diamond. For her part, Queen Elizabeth the First gave Drake a
jewel with her portrait, an unusual gift to bestow upon a commoner,
and one that Drake sported proudly in this portrait by Marcus
Gheeraerts, 1591, a copy of which is made available here on
a wide range of t-shirts, hoodies, posters,
mugs, greeting cards and more ...
Any
portraits or engravings used in designs for these products have
either been scanned from 19th Century or early 20th Century books
on the subject or photographed from the original images by Sally
McLean or photographers acting on her behalf. The images have
then been digitally cleaned up, restored and formatted for use.
