Attributed to Frans Pourbus I (Bruges 1545/6-1581 Antwerp)

This well-preserved, uncradled panel is composed of three Baltic oak boards, the middle of which displays displays merchant or cargo marks which are thought to have been incised onto packets of boards during shipment to indicate their destination, origin or ownership (cf. the contemporary Portrait of King Edward VI (1537-1553) sold in these Rooms, 7 December 2010, lot 10). We are grateful to Michael Rief of the Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum, Aachen, for noting the unusual character of the marks on the present work, which include a 'house mark' composed of the initials H or HH and an inverted '4' representing the caduceus or Staff of Mercury, a symbol often chosen by merchants to be an element of their house mark; and to Ian Tyers for suggesting that the mark may have been applied not at the Baltic point of origin but at some trading point along the supply chain to Antwerp.