Arm Candy

During the eighteenth century portrait bracelets were very much in vogue, the trend being led by Queen Charlotte whose husband gifted her a portrait of himself set in a bracelet frame strung with pearls. This example is larger than the average portrait bracelet and, once strung with pearls, it would be a striking statement piece to wear.

Skilfully painted by Henry Edridge during the 1780s, the half-length portrait shows a fine-featured lady wearing a blue and white dress with a white fichu, her hair curled and powdered. The portrait is in excellent condition and is presented in a gold bracelet frame with a pearl border.

The eldest son of a London tradesman, Henry Edridge ARA (1749-1821) was apprenticed to an engraver and, at the age of fifteen, entered the Royal Academy Schools where he came to the notice of the President, Sir Joshua Reynolds, who permitted him to make miniature copies of his works. Edridge exhibited miniatures and watercolour portraits between 1786 and 1821. His London studio attracted aristocratic sitters as well as artists and poets and he was regularly invited to country house parties where he would occupy himself by drawing portraits of his host’s family and fellow guests. Edridge was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy in 1820 just six months before he died.