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Lot 124

John Buncombe
(British, active 1795-1825)
Silhouette of Captain Jack Butcher, Paymaster of the 67th Regiment in Calcutta

14 September 2021, 13:00 BST
London, Knightsbridge

Sold for £3,825 inc. premium

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John Buncombe (British, active 1795-1825)

Silhouette of Captain Jack Butcher, Paymaster of the 67th Regiment in Calcutta
bears inscription 'Capt Butcher/67th Regt./Great uncle to/Mrs R L Bartlett' (verso)
watercolour and gouache
11 x 8cm (4 3/8 x 3 1/8in).

Footnotes

Provenance
The family of Captain Jack Butcher, and thence by descent.
Private collection, UK.

From the letters of Benjamin Oakley to his brother-in-law Captain Jack Butcher, which were published in Oakley's book Letters on Miscellaneous and Domestic Subjects in 1823, we know that in 1800 Butcher was stationed in Jamaica, by 1809 he was in Calcutta and had the role of Paymaster of the 67th Regiment and then in 1813 he was held as a Prisoner of War in Verdun, France.

The silhouette has been in Captain Butcher's family for generations and the current owner's great great grandparents, Robert Lea Bartlett (Vicar of Thurloxton) and his wife (the great niece of Captain Butcher), had it on their wall at the rectory as indicated on the backing panel which reads: 'From 1859 to 1904 this hung in my father's bedroom at Thurloxton Rectory'.

Additional information