Lot 119: A Gentleman traditionally identified as Richard Lovell Edgeworth, MP (1744-1817), wearing brown coat, white waistcoat, frilled chemise, stock and tied cravat, his hair lightly powdered

A Gentleman traditionally identified as Richard Lovell Edgeworth, MP (1744-1817), wearing brown coat, white waistcoat, frilled chemise, stock and tied cravat, his hair lightly powdered. Watercolour on ivory, signed on the obverse with initials and dated, J.S./ 1807, gilt-metal frame, the reverse glazed to reveal a lock of brown hair. Oval, 64mm (2 1/2in) high

Bonhams, London, 22 November 1993, lot 124; With K. Henninger-Tavcar on 25 February 1994

The present lot is comparable with Edgeworth's portrait by Hugh Douglas Hamilton (Irish, 1740-1808), which is held by the National Gallery of Ireland (inv.no. NGI.1350). Earlier portraits of Edgeworth and his daughter, Maria, both signed and dated 1780, are listed in D. Foskett, John Smart The Man and His Miniatures, 1964, p.66. His portrait by Horace Hone, signed and dated 1785 is held by the National Portrait Gallery, London (inv.no. NPG 5069). Richard Lovell Edgeworth was an Anglo-Irish politician, writer and inventor. A graduate of Oxford and Trinity College, Dublin, Edgeworth is credited for inventing a device to measure the size of a plot of land. He lived with his ever-expanding family on his estate at Edgeworthstown, County Longford, where he reclaimed bogs and improved roads. As a politician, Edgeworth sat in Grattan's Parliament for St Johnstown from 1798 until the Act of Union in 1801 and advocated Catholic Emancipation and parliamentary reform. He was a founder-member of the Royal Irish Academy and a member of the Lunar Society (c.1760-c.1813). He had twenty-two children by his four wives. His eldest daughter, Maria (1768–1849), became a prolific novelist, writing extensively for both adults and children.