Roy Precious - Antiques & Fine Art has dated this piece to the 17th Century.
Inscribed left with the date 1603 and the name and age of the sitter, Lady Alicia, 25.
To the right is a coat of arms.
This small painting's detail in the clothing is beautifully observed and painted.
This is more visible in some lights than others..in some lights it is not noticable.These images have been taken with a light intentionally showing the mark strongly.
Obviously a painting 400 years old will have some damages and restoration in its life, and this is no exception. However, it is a rare and lovely little thing and priced realistically.
The blazon of the arms is Gules a Bend sinister over all three Cinquefoils Argent. What is noticeable about the arms is the bend sinister, the diagonal stripe from the top right of the shield to the bottom left as you look at it. This charge is not often used in older arms as it commonly denotes bastardy. What is even more unusual is the fact that it appears behind the cinquefoils.
The arms, as they appear, are not in the pictorial records of the College of Arms. There are a number of similar arms, without the bend sinister, which were recorded during the Heralds’ Visitations of the English and Welsh counties during the 16th and 17th centuries. The Officers of Arms visited each county roughly every generation between 1530 and 1687 to oversee the use of arms and to record the pedigrees of the gentry. The arms so recorded relate to the following families: Davey (Lincolnshire, 1634), Farrington (London, 1633-4; Sussex, 1662), and Lambert (London, 1687). In the latter case, the cinquefoils are tinctured Or, not Argent.
It is possible that the sitter’s family might have adopted the arms of another family without having any right to them by differentiating them slightly. It was not uncommon for families who had come up in the world to adopt arms to which they were not entitled.
SIZE:panel 12 x 9.75 inches.
frame 17.25 x 15 inches.
PROVENANCE:Old Collection, an Oxfordshire Dower House.
Roy Precious - Antiques & Fine Art has dated this piece to the 17th Century.
Roy and nadine precious: specialists in portraiture from the 16th to the 20th century. Established in 1972.
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Portrait of an Elizabethan Lady, 17th Century; English School.
