SAMUEL COOPER (BRITISH, 1609-1672)

Details

SAMUEL COOPER (BRITISH, 1609-1672)
King Charles II (1630-1685), in silvered gilt-studded armour, white lace lawn collar, wearing the blue sash of the Order of the Garter, long dark wig; sky background
on vellum
oval, 1.7/8 in. (47 mm.) high, gilt-metal frame by James Seamer, the reverse engraved with foliate monogram of James Sotheby

Provenance

Acquired by James Sotheby (1655-1720), circa 1700.
Thence by descent to The late Major-General Frederick Edward Sotheby of Ecton Hall, Northampton; Sotheby's, London, 11 October 1955, lot 40 (as by Nicholas Dixon, 266 gns. to Lee).
Sotheby's, London, 15 November 1982, lot 48.

Literature

J. J. Foster, Samuel Cooper and the English Miniature Painters of the XVII Century, London, 1914-16, Supplement, p. 21, no. 75.

Exhibited

London, South Kensington Museum, Special Exhibition of Works of Art of the Medieval, Renaissance, and more Recent Periods, June 1862, section II, no. 2648 (lent by Charles Sotheby).
London, Burlington Fine Arts Club, Exhibition of Portrait Miniatures, 1889, p. 62, no. 19 (lent by Major-General Sotheby).
Manchester City Art Gallery, Old and Modern Miniatures, 1926, no. 255.

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Emma Durkin

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Lot Essay

The present frame compares with thirteen other frames containing miniatures from the James Sotheby collection. They have been attributed to James Seamer on the basis of an entry in Sotheby's account book recording payment to Seamer on 21 January 1705/6: 'Pd Mr James Seamer Goldsmith his / bill in full of all acts. £11.7s9d. / £9.5s3d. whereof was for the case, Cristal, & co of Venus by Oliver.' (see R. Murdoch, Seventeenth-century English Miniatures in the Collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 1997, p. 157).

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