A Coronet

The gown-over-gown style of this lady’s classical dress with its plunging neckline and detailing to the sleeves dates the portrait to the 1790s. Her unpowdered hair is worn in a plain chignon with a bandeau.

The portrait has lain neglected for decades in a drawer at Dewlish House in Dorset, a Queen Anne style home originally built for the Michel family in 1702.

Set with convex glass in a traditional papier-mâché frame with a coronet hanger with crosses and fleurs-de-lis (a style normally associated with a Royal child), the miniature and the frame are in good condition, the frame with some old crazing. An old inscription on the backing paper is unfortunately too faded to read.

The younger son of an Irish silversmith, Frederick Buck (1765-1840) was a prolific and resourceful artist working mostly in his native Cork where his sitters comprised the local gentry and the passing military. He married twice and had at least eight children.