Live Auction 7999Centuries of Style: Silver, European Ceramics, Glass, Portrait Miniatures and Gold Boxes
SIR WILLIAM CHARLES ROSS, R.A. (BRITISH, 1794/95-1860)
Lot 143 PROPERTY FROM A WELSH PRIVATE COLLECTION

SIR WILLIAM CHARLES ROSS, R.A. (BRITISH, 1794/95-1860)

Closed29 November 2011

Price Realised

GBP 2,125

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SIR WILLIAM CHARLES ROSS, R.A. (BRITISH, 1794/95-1860)
Lady King, Countess of Kingston, née Helena Moore (1773-1847), in mauve dress, wearing a pearl necklace, dark upswept hair dressed in curls, together with a pair of portraits of her sons: Edward King, Viscount Kingsborough (1795-1837), in brown coat and blue and white striped shirt, and Robert Henry King, 4th Earl of Kingston (1796-1867), similarly dressed (English School, 19th century)
the former signed and dated on the backing card 'Painted by W C Ross Ra [...] 184[7]'
on ivory
ovals, 1¾ in. (45 mm.) high, gilt-metal mount; and 2½ in. (63 mm.) high, gilt-metal mounts, within rectangular ebonised wood frames with acorn motifs
the former inscribed in pen on an additional backing card 'Helena Countess of Kingston b:1773. d.1847 Sir D. Ross pinxt' and in pencil, in another hand, 'W' inserted before 'pinxt', and engraved on the reverse of the frame is a transcription of the additional backing card, the interior with two H. J. Hatfield trade labels (4)

By direct family descent

Specialist note

For a portrait miniature by George Engleheart of Helena, Countess of Kingston, and a biographical note, see lot 129.

Edward, Viscount Kingsborough, eldest son of the Earl and Countess of Kingston, was an antiquarian who sought to prove that indigenous peoples of the Americas were a lost tribe of Israel. He published facsimilies of ancient documents and reports by early explorers on early ruins and civilisations. He died before succeeding to his father's title and his young brother, Robert, became 4th Earl of Kingston in 1839. Robert was an Irish peer, Whig politician and served in the British army in occupied France after the fall of Napoleon.