A Welsh Beauty

Cut and neatly gilded profile of an elegant young lady, her hair upswept in a plaited and twisted knot with decorative plaited loops framing her face. Traditional papier-mâché frame backed with the artist William Seville’s white trade label and inscribed in ink (Mrs ??) with the placename, Welshpool.

One of seven children, William Seville (1797-1866) was born in Oldham. He began cutting profiles around 1818 and styled himself ‘Mr Seville of Manchester’. He was an itinerant artist covering Scotland, Ireland, Wales and the northern counties of England. By the 1840s his son, Frederick William, had joined him in the business and became particularly skilled at the gilding work.