2-699-055 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

'Old Patch', (1897). Portrait of 'Old Patch', a notorious forger of banknotes, so called because he supposedly wore an eye-patch as one of his disguises. He operated in London in the 1780s, and apparently made his own ink and paper. He was eventually caught, and hanged himself in his cell. From Old and New London, Volume I, by Walter Thornbury. [Cassell and Company, Limited, London, Paris & Melbourne, 1897]