Lot 116: Susan Penelope Rosse (British, 1652-1700) Lady Catherine Cavendish (1665–1712), wearing blue dress, her brown veil draped around her shoulders and tucked into the décolleté of her dress

Lady Catherine Cavendish (1665–1712), wearing blue dress, her brown veil draped around her shoulders and tucked into the décolleté of her dress.
Watercolour on vellum, gilt-mounted on the underside of the lid of a gold-mounted circular stained ivory box decorated with relief carved shells and crabs (English, mid 18th Century), the inner base with circular gilt-metal plaque engraved Catherine/ da: of Henry Cavendish/ Duke of Newcastle,/ wife of Thomas 6υth Earl Thanet,/ and Mother of Mary/ Wife of John,/ 1υst Earl Gower.
Oval, 27mm (1 1/16in) high
Provenance: Lady Mary Leveson-Gower (née Tufton) and thence by descent.

Lady Catherine Cavendish was one of five daughters born to Henry Cavendish, 2nd Duke of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, KG, PC (1630–1691) and Frances Pierrepont (1630-1695). On the 14th August 1684, Catherine married Thomas, 6th Earl of Thanet PC (1644–1729), a Tory politician and heir to his family's vast estates in Cumberland and Westmorland. They had eight children, five of whom survived to adulthood. Their seventh child, Lady Mary Tufton (d. 1785), married Anthony Grey, Earl of Harold (1695–1723) in 1718, and then the Tory politician, John Leveson-Gower, 1st Earl Gower (1694–1754) in 1736. She was Earl Gower's third wife and they had two sons. It is through this second marriage that the present lot descended to the current owner.