Lot 281: WILLIAM EGLEY (BRITISH, 1798-1870), AFTER JEAN-BAPTISTE ISABEY

WILLIAM EGLEY (BRITISH, 1798-1870), AFTER JEAN-BAPTISTE ISABEY
Colonel Sir Horace Beauchamp Seymour (1791-1851), in uniform of the 1st Life Guards, gilt-bordered steel breast-plate, with gilt collar and black stock, wearing the Waterloo medal
signed and dated in full on the backing card, 'Painted by Wυm Egley 40 London Street Fitzroy Square 1840 From a miniature by Isaby' [sic]
on ivory
oval, 2 in. (52 mm.) high, engine-turned gilt-metal hinged locket frame, the interior cover engraved 'Sir Horace Seymour, K.C.H. 1791-1851. By William Egley, 1840. after J.B. Isabey.'

Albert Edward John, 7th Earl Spencer (1892-1975), inventory Miniatures at Althorp, 1937, no. 86 (as 'Painted for his 2nd wife, Lady Clinton, who left it to her niece, Lady Sarah Spencer, who gave it to John, 7th Earl Spencer in 1917.')

Commissioned by the sitter's wife, Frances Selina Isabella Poyntz (d.1875), who married firstly Col. Robert Cotton St. John Trefusis, 18th Lord Clinton (1787-1832) and secondly, and by descent to her niece Lady Sarah Spencer (1787-1870); given in 1917 to her nephew, Albert Edward John, 7th Earl Spencer (1892-1975).

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Colonel Sir Horace Beauchamp Seymour was the son of Admiral Lord Hugh Seymour and Lady Anne Horatia Waldegrave (see lots 24 & 25). He first married Elizabeth Malet Palk in 1818 and had three children, including Lt.-Col. Charles Francis Seymour (see lot 282) and Adelaide, Countess Spencer (1825-1877), second wife of Frederick, 4th Earl Spencer. He later married Frances Selina Isabella, Lady Clinton, daughter of William Stephen Poyntz and the Hon. Mary Browne and sister of Frederick, 4th Earl Spencer's first wife Elizabeth Poyntz (1799-1851). He served in the cavalry at the Battle of Waterloo, and eventually attained the rank of Colonel.

The present miniature derives from a signed and dated portrait on paper by Jean-Baptiste Isabey of 1820, once in the collection of Adelaide Horatia Spencer (1825-1877), second wife of Frederick, 4th Earl Spencer, and daughter of the present sitter. The portrait was exhibited London, South Kensington Museum, Special Exhibition of Portrait Miniatures, 1865, no. 2129 (lent by The Dowager Countess Spencer and as 'one of the few miniatures painted by the artist during his short residence in England'). It was later exhibited in Malmaison, Musée national des Châteaux de Malmaison et Bois-Préau, Jean-Baptiste Isabey, portraitiste de l'Europe (1767-1855), 2005-2006, no. 172, p. 151, illustrated in colour p. 87 (private collection).