Finely drawn in India ink on vellum, these true-to-life and characterful portraits depict an aged mother with her eldest son and his wife. Painted around 1734-5, they are amongst James Ferguson’s earliest portraits.Hannah Filkes née Jephreys (1660-c1735) in her widow’s weeds is the proud matriarch of the Filkes family of Devizes, Wiltshire. Aged 20, Hannah married John Filkes/Ffilkes and by him had five children. Hannah was widowed in 1723 when she was 63. Shown alongside Hannah is her eldest son James, known as Felix, (1680-1745) who worked in the family trade as a wool stapler (a sort of middleman who bought sheep fleeces, graded them and sold them on to be woven into cloth). His dapper attire, well-rounded figure and multiple chins suggest he made a good living for himself and his family! He married (the bemused-looking) Ann Grant (1686-1761) who was the daughter of a clothier in nearby Trowbridge. They had five children.The portraits reside in their original turned wood fra...