Lot 13: Gervase Spencer (British, circa 1715-1763) Lady Louisa Augusta Greville (b.1743), aged 8, wearing black lace hooded cape over white dress and lace bonnet

Lady Louisa Augusta Greville (b.1743), aged 8, wearing black lace hooded cape over white dress and lace bonnet.
Signed on the obverse with initials and dated GS/ 1751, inscribed on the reverse Lady Louisa/ Churchill/ Col. Greville's/ sister/ 1751, turned pearwood frame.
Oval, 40mm (1 9/16in) high
Provenance: The Earl Cathcart; Sotheby's, 25 June 1979, lot 103
Sotheby's, 24 October 1988, lot 286
Exhibited: Portrait Miniatures from the Merchiston Collection, Scottish National Portrait Gallery, 23 September – 11 December 2005, no.14
Literature: Stephen Lloyd, Exhibition Catalogue, 2005, p.58

Lady Louisa was the eldest of eight children born to Francis Greville, 1st Earl of Warwick KT and 1st Earl Brooke (1719-1773) and his wife Elizabeth Hamilton. She married William Churchill in 1770. Through her mother, she was the niece of Sir William Hamilton, the British Ambassador to Naples and husband of the infamous Emma Lady Hamilton, who prior to her marriage had been the mistress of Louisa's younger brother Charles.


The present lot passed into the hands of the Cathcart family, by whom it was first sold, through Louisa's brother Robert Fulke Greville, who married Louisa Cathcart, daughter of Charles, 9th Lord Cathcart. The miniature then passed to his son William, 1st Earl Cathcart and thence by descent until 1979 when it was sold by Alan, 6th Earl Cathcart.