.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
The Latin inscription translates:
'A.D. 1588, in the 30th of Queen Elizabeth, when Lord Charles Howard, High Admiral of England had taken the command of the Royal English Fleet, to oppose the Spanish Armada fitted out for the destruction of the English, but which was itself defeated and suffered the ruin it had threatened, I was appointed by the same High Admiral Captain of the Royal Ship called 'The Foresight,' and one of the four who under the title of Vice-Admiral were to manage that fleet.'
The sitter has traditionally been identified as Admiral Richard Chester. The Arms and Crest that the portrait bears were however granted by Robert Cooke Clarenceaux, King of Arms (d.1593), to Christopher Baker of Deptford. The previous misidentification would appear to stem from a mistranslation of the latin word 'Providentia'in the inscription as 'Providence' rather than 'Foresight'. Captain Christopher Baker is recorded as having been captain of the 'Foresight' during the action against the Armada in 1588. The ship had been built in 1570, weighed 300 tons, and had one hundred and ten mariners, twenty gunners and twenty soldiers (see State Papers Relating To The Spanish Armada, Anno 1588, ed. J. K. Laughton, II, pp. 194, 197, 325 and 336). Admiral Chester presumably commanded another ship the 'Providence'.
'A.D. 1588, in the 30th of Queen Elizabeth, when Lord Charles Howard, High Admiral of England had taken the command of the Royal English Fleet, to oppose the Spanish Armada fitted out for the destruction of the English, but which was itself defeated and suffered the ruin it had threatened, I was appointed by the same High Admiral Captain of the Royal Ship called 'The Foresight,' and one of the four who under the title of Vice-Admiral were to manage that fleet.'
The sitter has traditionally been identified as Admiral Richard Chester. The Arms and Crest that the portrait bears were however granted by Robert Cooke Clarenceaux, King of Arms (d.1593), to Christopher Baker of Deptford. The previous misidentification would appear to stem from a mistranslation of the latin word 'Providentia'in the inscription as 'Providence' rather than 'Foresight'. Captain Christopher Baker is recorded as having been captain of the 'Foresight' during the action against the Armada in 1588. The ship had been built in 1570, weighed 300 tons, and had one hundred and ten mariners, twenty gunners and twenty soldiers (see State Papers Relating To The Spanish Armada, Anno 1588, ed. J. K. Laughton, II, pp. 194, 197, 325 and 336). Admiral Chester presumably commanded another ship the 'Providence'.