Lot 166: An enamel portrait plaque of the Marquess of Exeter by Henry Bone, dated 1803

After Sir Martin Archer Shee, the Marquess shown reclining in a red velvet chair, his hair cut fashionably short, wearing black silk breeches and stockings, waistcoat and frockcoat, holding a pair of scissors and balancing a book on its spine, signed on the reserve 'The Most Noble the Marquis of Exeter. London March 1803. Painted by Henry Bone A.R.A. Enamel Painter to H.R.H. the Prince of Wales after a picture by M.A.Shee R.A. painted in 1802' the plaque 19cm x 22.3cm, with its original (distressed) frame and a later giltwood frame

An inscription on the back of the original frame, possibly written by Henry Bone, refers to the subject as 'The late Marquis of Exeter', suggesting the piece was not delivered until after the Earl's death. Lord Exeter died in May 1804, aged 50, and was succeeded in his titles by his eldest son, Brownlow. A pencil drawing of the Earl by Henry Bone, squared in ink for transfer and dated 1803 is in the collection of the National portrait gallery (NPG D17281).

Henry Cecil (1754-1804) was the only son of Thomas Chambers Cecil, second son of Brownlow, 8th Earl of Exeter. Henry succeeded his uncle as 9th Earl in 1793. He was elevated to the title of Marquess in 1801. He married firstly Emma, daughter of Thomas Vernon, whom he divorced in 1791, following her elopement with the Rev. William Sneyd. The previous year, as 'John Jones of Great Bolas', he had bigamously married Sarah, daughter of Thomas Higgins. This marriage was legalized four months after his divorce. Tennyson's Lord of Burleigh proffered a rather romantic interpretation of the Earl courtship with the "peasant countess". After her death in 1797 he married in 1800, Elizabeth, the Dowager Duchess of Hamilton