Lot 67: Thomas Le Hardy (British, active 1791-1802) James Hare Jolliffe (1772-1832), half-length, wearing black coat, white waistcoat, lace trimmed chemise and tied cravat

James Hare Jolliffe (1772-1832), half-length, wearing black coat, white waistcoat, lace trimmed chemise and tied cravat.
Signed on the obverse and dated Le Hardy/ 1791, gold frame, the reverse with blue glass border around glazed aperture to reveal gold monogram JHJ on plaited hair, set in a red leather travelling case.
Oval, 80mm (3 1/8in) high

James Hare Jolliffe was the son of Christopher Hare and Mary Jolliffe. The present lot shows him as a confident 19 year old, embarking on a career in the Atlantic timber trade.

By the spring of 1806 Jolliffe had formed a partnership with John Mure, a Scottish businessman, to export timber and lumber from Canada. Within a year the partners became agents for the London wine and stave merchants Scott, Idle and Company, a major contractor to the Admiralty for masts, spars and staves. The company’s contract and the agency of Mure and Jolliffe were challenged by competitors, chief among them Henry Usborne, a businessman from the Isle of Wight, who attempted to prevent local shipbuilders from 'engaging' with Mure and Jolliffe. Their timber and spars became the targets of thieves and saboteurs; but it has to be said that Mure and Jolliffe were no less aggressive in dealing with their rivals.

Between 1807 and 1813 the partners bought timber and planks from subcontractors at Plattsburgh and Peru, N.Y., and in Upper Canada at Kingston, York (Toronto) and along the upper St Lawrence. The firm’s cutting was frequently indiscriminate, drawing unheeded complaints from resident spokesmen such as the Reverend Alexander McDonell of Glengarry. By 1809 the combined timber operations of Mure and Jolliffe, through their two companies, John Mure and Company, and the London firm of Linthorne and Jolliffe necessitated their joint lease of virtually all the coves at Quebec. Their exports filled many vessels, and the ballast on incoming ships (usually salt) was sold by Mure. His association with Jolliffe ended when the latter went bankrupt with Benjamin Linthorne around 1813.