Sadly the identity of this stylish couple has been lost to history. Seated on a red upholstered chair before a drape and a classical column, the gentleman wears a bright red waistcoat under his blue frock coat with large gold buttons, the powder from his ‘staring wings’ toupée visible on his coat collar. Also seated before a stone column as she reads a letter, his wife wears a décolleté gown and a blue-gray wrap. Her strawberry blonde hair falls over her shoulders in curls and is decorated with a jewelled rope of luscious pearls with a striped silk ribbon trailing down her back.Set in gold plated frames with a monogram to the reverse of the gentleman, the portraits date to the 1780s and have traditionally been ascribed to the hand of Joseph Saunders. Both portraits have dust under the glass but are otherwise fine and in good colour.In addition to painting portrait miniatures, Joseph Saunders drew pastel portraits from a studio at St Paul’s, Covent Garden. He exhibited at the So...