ENGLISH SCHOOL, 1625
ENGLISH SCHOOL, 1625
ENGLISH SCHOOL, 1625
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PROPERTY OF A LADY
ENGLISH SCHOOL, 1625

Portrait of John Cotton (1547-1635), of Steeple Gidding, near Huntingdon, aged 78, bust-length in a black coat and white ruff

Details
ENGLISH SCHOOL, 1625
Portrait of John Cotton (1547-1635), of Steeple Gidding, near Huntingdon, aged 78, bust-length in a black coat and white ruff
oil on panel
21 7⁄8 x 16 ¾ in. (55.5 x 42.5 cm.)
inscribed 'Ætatis sua / 78 anno 1625.' (upper right) and with identifying inscription 'John Cotton of Steepll / Gedding in com. hunt Esq / Uncle to Sr Robt Cotton knt & Bar.t Surnamed / the antiquary' (upper left)
Provenance
Mary Feilding, née Cotton (d. 1782), Countess of Denbigh and Desmond, and by descent in the family of the Earls of Denbigh at Newnham Paddox, Rugby, to,
Rudolph Edmund Aloysius Feilding, Viscount Feilding (1885-1937); his sale (†), Christie's, London, 1 July 1938, lot 20, where acquired by the father-in-law of the present owner.
Literature
P. Toynbee (ed.), ‘Horace Walpole's Journals of Visits to Country Seats etc.', The Volume of the Walpole Society, XVI, 1927-1928, p. 63.

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Lucy Speelman
Lucy Speelman Junior Specialist, Head of Day Sale

Lot Essay


The painter of this characterful portrait continues to elude identification, although its provenance is relatively well-documented. In his journal of travels around England's country houses, Horace Walpole recorded a visit to Newnham Paddox in 1768, where he noted 'a good head of one Cotton an ancestor of the present Countess.' (loc. cit.). At the time of his visit, the tenants at Newnham Paddox were Basil Feilding, 6th Earl of Denbigh (1719-1800), who in 1757 had married Mary Cotton (d. 1782). She was the daughter of Sir John Cotton, 6th Bt., a descendant of Sir Robert Cotton, 1st Bt., of Connington (1570-1631), who, if the later inscription at upper left is reliable, was a nephew of the sitter in the present portrait.

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