25 Nov 2009
14:00 GMT
London, Knightsbridge
The Merchiston Collection of Fine Portrait Miniatures, The Property of Mrs Eleanor Hamilton
Back to auction 17787
The Merchiston Collection of Fine Portrait Miniatures, The Property of Mrs Eleanor Hamilton
Back to auction 17787
Sir William Charles Ross, RA (British, 1794-1860)
Maria, Lady Culme-Seymour (née Smith) (d.1887), standing three-quarter length, wearing white dress with short sleeves banded with pink ribbon, a corsage of camelias pinned to her wide lace collar, black lace stole about her shoulders and black silk-lined mantle over her wrists, she holds a book in her right hand, landscape with sheep beyond.
Gilt-metal frame with ormolu slip.
Rectangular, 150mm (5 7/8in) high
Provenance: Seymour Family; Sotheby's, 27 March 1972, lot 55
Exhibited: Scottish Print Club, Edinburgh, 1937
Portrait Miniatures from the Merchiston Collection, Scottish National Portrait Gallery, 23 September – 11 December 2005, no.71
Literature: Stephen Lloyd, Exhibition Catalogue, 2005, p.79
Gilt-metal frame with ormolu slip.
Rectangular, 150mm (5 7/8in) high
Provenance: Seymour Family; Sotheby's, 27 March 1972, lot 55
Exhibited: Scottish Print Club, Edinburgh, 1937
Portrait Miniatures from the Merchiston Collection, Scottish National Portrait Gallery, 23 September – 11 December 2005, no.71
Literature: Stephen Lloyd, Exhibition Catalogue, 2005, p.79
Sold for
£2,400
inc. premium
Footnotes
- Maria Louisa Smith was the daughter of Charles and Augusta Smith and sister of Sir Charles Joshua Smith, 2nd Bt. She married, as his second wife, Rev. Sir John Hobart Culme-Seymour, 2nd Bt., son of Admiral Sir Michael Seymour, 1st Bt. and Jane Hawker (see lot 63), on 10 February 1844. Her husband had added the surname Culme following the death of his first wife Elizabeth Culme, by whom he had three children. Maria and John themselves had four daughters, Laura Maria (d.1893), Jane Eliza (d.1905), Caroline Mary (d.1857) and Charlotte Augusta Mary (d.1940) and one son, Major Henry Hobart Culme-Seymour (1847-1920).
The present lot is an interesting example of a miniature being "updated". From the slight "cloud" around the sitter's head, it can be surmised that originally she was wearing a wide-brimmed hat. It was a common practice in the 19th Century when Ladies' fashion changed at a much faster rate than the previous century, for sitters to return to an artist in order to have costume details that were no longer fashionable, such as hats and hairstyles, updated with the latest trend.
Category: Fine Art / Portrait Miniatures
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