The Property of the late DR. ANTON F. PHILIPS
Flemish School, circa 1550

Details
Flemish School, circa 1550

A Rare Early Portrait Miniature of a Gentleman, facing left in black doublet with buttons down the front, narrow ruff and flat black hat, his hand on his black cloak, blue background

on vellum, gold frame with spiral cresting
1 1/2in. (38mm.) diam.
Provenance
Horace Walpole, Strawberry Hill, 1842 (according to the Hollingsworth Magniac sale catalogue)
Hollingsworth Magniac; Christie's, 2 July 1892, lot 185, as Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, by Hans Holbein (95 gns. to Mainwaring)
Anon. sale; Christie's, 9 July 1901, lot 78, as a miniature believed to be a Portrait of Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk by Hans Holbein (185 gns. to Hodgkins)
J. Pierpont Morgan; Christie's, 24 June 1935, lot 132, as School of Hans Holbein the Younger (65 gns. to Dr. Beets)
Literature
G. C. Williamson, Catalogue of the Collection of Miniatures, the property of J. Pierpont Morgan, London, 1906, I, no. 9, pl. VI, no. 3

Lot Essay

There is a small group of early portrait miniatures that have not yet been attributed - e.g. a bearded man in black in the collection of the Duke of Buccleuch (H.A. Kennedy, Early English Portrait Miniatures in the Collection of the Duke of Buccleuch, London, 1917, pl. VIII), and another in the Wallace Collection (G. Reynolds, Catalogue of Miniatures, London, 1980, p. 40, no. 4) - which are probably by one of the Flemish illuminators working at the court of King Henry VIII, apart from Lucas Horenbout, whose hand has been identified, and Lavina Teerlinc. The fact that the sitter is a bearded man with a rather square face probably led to the Hollingsworth Magniac attribution of Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, and the well drawn hand led to the attribution of Holbein as the artist. We have been unable to trace the miniature in the Strawberry Hill catalogue of 1842, but the short descriptions preclude a definitive assessment

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