Late 18th Century Silk Work Portrait of a Lady

Three late 18th century polychrome glazed Delft pottery vases, two of baluster form, one of trumpet form, each with a central cartouche depicting a lands...

A late 18th century Chinese export watercolour, depicting a man and a woman in a garden, a watermelon set upon the window sill.  

A large early eighteenth century Baroque mirror, the profusely carved foliate giltwood frame housing a period mercury glass plate Circa 170...

Camphor-lined and with brass borders and nailing, painted with floral panels and borders on a sealing-wax red ground; on a later conforming, red-painted stand.  

A Blue and White Delft charger the decoration imitating kraakware

Jan van der Vaart (1647-1727) Portrait of Dorothy, Lady Brownlow (1664-1700) Oil on canvas; held in a period carved wood frame circa 1687 Considered a beauty of the age, Dorothy, Lady Brownlow was painted on a number of occasions by some of the most talented and respected artists of the day; Kneller, Riley, Closterman, Dahl and Wissing, all rendered her features in oil for posterity. The portrait presented here is by Jan van der Vaart who from 1685-1687 was employed by Willem Wissing as a drapery and landscape painter. After Wissing’s death in 1687 he practiced as an independent portraitist much in the style of his master with some influence also of Kneller. This work is in fact the head and shoulders taken from Wissing’s three-quarter length of Lady Brownlow which hangs at Belton House, Lincolnshire and produced as a mezzotint in 1687. Van der Vaart has made some intriguing alterations particularly as the sitter now looks directly at us, appearing rather more provocative and self assured of her beauty. The confident rendering of the dress and pearls and the thickly drawn copious hair are hallmarks of Van der Vaart’s work. It is likely he completed this portrait – shortly after Wissing’s version – as a smaller variant intended for another family member as was often the practice. Dorothy Mason married Sir William Brownlow 4th Bt. in July 1688; she was the daughter and heir of Sir Richard Mason a politician and courtier to Charles II who owned estates at Bishop’s Castle, Salop and Sutton Surrey. She came from, and married into extreme wealth; her dowry upon marriage was £10,000 and on her death her husband inherited the estates that were once her father’s. In June 1697 William Brownlow succeeded his brother to the baronetcy and to most of his landed estates including Belton House. In 1698 he abandoned his Peterborough seat to contest Bishop’s Castle on behalf of his wife and in the interest of his mother-in-law, Lady Anna Mason...

Antique French engraving of birds, Paris, late 18th century. From the Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux published from 1770-1786. A hand-colored,...

A lovely set of four 18th century style portrait engravings with allegorical scenes presented in giltwood frames under glass with very fine hand-colored matting. The engravings were ...

Carlo Lasinio (1759-1838) Four hand-colored engravings from Lasinio's Ritratti Originali de Pittori Esistenti Nella Reale Galleria de Firenze, published from 1791-96. The entire pu...

Pair of framed neoclassical engravings, after works painted by Jean Jacques François Le Barbier (1738 - 1826) and engraved by Jean-Jacques Avril (1744-1831), dated 1789 for the paint...

Pair Russian portraits in 18th century garb. Fine French hand coloured engravings of a Russian male and female in traditional late 18th century richly coloured and styled clothing an...

Small woodcut on vellum by Thomas Bewick (1753 - 1828) England. This early vignette-sized print which his last work titled Waiting for Death is based upon and designed as a plea aga...