Sir Geoffrey Palmer (1598-1670), Bt., Attorney General, in black robes, white lawn collar, black skull cap, long curling fair hair, moustache; pillar and sky background

Details

Thomas Flatman (British, 1635-1688)
Sir Geoffrey Palmer (1598-1670), Bt., Attorney General, in black robes, white lawn collar, black skull cap, long curling fair hair, moustache; pillar and sky background
signed with monogram and dated 'F1663' (mid-left)
on vellum
oval, 2 5/8 in. (66 mm.) high, silver-gilt frame, the reverse engraved 'Sir Geoffrey Palmer Signed FLATMAN Dated 1663 Shaftesbury Colln'

Provenance

The Shaftesbury Collection, St. Giles' House, Dorset.
Edward M. Hodgkins, London.
With Duveen Brothers, London.
Hans Freiherr von Reitzes Collection, Vienna.
Greta Shield Heckett (1899-1976) Collection, Pittsburgh, Pa; part II, Sotheby's, London, 11 July 1977, lot 142.
Sotheby's, London, 19 October 1981, lot 56.

Literature

J. J. Foster, Samuel Cooper & the English Miniature Painters of the XVII Century, London, 1914-1916, Supplement vol. p. 111, no. 39.

Exhibited

Brussels, Hôtel du Baron Goffinet, Exposition de la miniature, 1912, no. 155 (lent by Duveen Brothers, London).
Vienna, Albertina, Internationale Miniaturen-Ausstellung in der Albertina Wien, 1924, no. 349 (lent by Hans Freiherr von Reitzes).
Pittsburgh, Pa., Carnegie Institute, Four Centuries of Portrait Miniatures from the Heckett Collection, 1954, no. 23, illustrated pl. X.

Special notice

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Lot Essay

Sir Geoffrey Palmer, 1st Bt., was a lawyer and politician. He studied law at Christ's College, Cambridge, was admitted to the Middle Temple in 1616 and was called to the bar in 1623. He was later elected to the Long Parliament representing Stamford, Lincolnshire. He became involved in the protestation of 3 May 1641 in defence of the Protestant religion and the act for prolongation of the Parliament, supporting Charles I in his opposition to the new council. During the Grand Remonstrance, Palmer caused a disturbance in Parliament by protesting against the motion for the grievances presented to the king to be printed. He was sentenced to a brief spell in the Tower of London. Shortly after the Militia Ordinance was passed, Palmer withdrew from Parliament but found himself back in the Tower in 1655 on suspicion of raising forces against Cromwell.
After the Restoration in 1660 he was created Attorney General, bencher of the Middle Temple, knight, baronet, and serjeant-at-law.

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