The Vicar’s Wife

The wonderfully named “Lady Chinnery Tooth” shown in profile is wearing her Sunday best bonnet of grey silk decorated with matching ribbon and trimmed with lace. Her grey dress is worn with a white ruff fill-in and brightened up with a colourful shawl.

Born in Stafford in 1813, Harriet Keen married a local lad, George Chinnery Tooth, at the age of 25. The couple first set up home in Staffordshire before moving to the rectory at Great Longstone in Derbyshire where George was appointed the local vicar.

Painted on card in gouache and watercolour, the portrait is set behind convex glass in a traditional papier-mâché frame with a brass surround and acorn hanger. The backing paper is inscribed, though some of it is tricky to read. The portrait has spots of paint loss around the edge of the bonnet whilst the frame has the usual nibbles to the outside edge.