Saunders Welch was a prosperous grocer, magistrate and friend of Samuel Johnson. According to J.T. Smith, Nollekens and his Times, 1828, vol. 1, p. 137, 'Mr Welch, in the course of a few months, repeated to Wilson the proposition of sporting a round of beef and of making another fifteen-guinea purchase; and in this manner he became possessed of the two beautiful pictures which descended to Mr Nollekens'. Joseph Nollekens, whose wife was Welch's daughter, owned P14 View of Dover, which according to Smith, Welch had bought 'at a furniture sale by Wilson's recommendation, assuring him that it was the best picture he painted'.