![](https://www.wigsonthegreen.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/benbow-1-691x1024.jpg)
Portrait miniatures, silhouettes, portraits & an omnium-gatherum of historical interest & character.
Enquiries and orders
What Ever IS is Right
Memento Mori, 1780
Sold
This touching memorial piece is dedicated to John Benbow who died in 1780. Painted in sepia watercolour with chopped hair, it shows a grieving lady weeping by an urn on a stone plinth inscribed ‘The Lord giveth / What ever / IS / Is Right / & the Lord taketh Away’. In the background can be seen a sailing ship and a small castle flying a flag. Two angels hover overhead with a Memento Mori banner. The whole scene is enclosed within a beautiful hair garland decorated with painted leaves.
The presence of the sailing ship suggests that Benbow may have had a career at sea though genealogical research has only uncovered one John Benbow who died in 1780. He was a high constable in Worcestershire who married Mary Brookholding in 1737 and with her fathered a son.
In fine condition, the memorial is set in a silver (untested) frame that is solid reverse.
Item Ref. 7616
Size: 40 x 33mm