Lot Essay
The sitters have traditionally been identified as the daughters of Sir Amias Poulett (d. 1588), the son of Sir Hugh Paulett, Governor of Jersey, and his second wife Phillipa, daughter and heiress of Sir Lewis Pollard, of King's Nympton, Devon, who was Queen Elizabeth I's Ambassador to France in 1576. However, both stylistically and in terms of the sitters costumes this portrait would appear to date from circa 1615 which makes the traditional identification unlikely as Sir Amias Poulett is recorded as having died in 1588.