Live Auction 1187A Life's Devotion: The Collection of the Late Mrs T.S. Eliot
WILLIAM GRIMALDI (BRITISH, 1751-1830)
Lot 151

WILLIAM GRIMALDI (BRITISH, 1751-1830)

Closed20 November 2013

Price Realised

GBP 6,875

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WILLIAM GRIMALDI (BRITISH, 1751-1830)
Prince William Frederick, later Duke of Gloucester (1776-1834), in gold figured blue coat with red collar and cuffs; red curtain and pillar background
signed and inscribed on the reverse 'to / Prince William of Gloucester / By Wm. Grimaldi Enamel / Painter to His Royal Highness / Prince of Wales / and Enamel and Miniature Painter to their Royal Highness's Duke / and Duchess / of York'
on ivory
oval, 4.1/8 in. (105 mm.) high, chased gilt-metal frame with ribbon surmount

A direct descendant of the artist; Christie's, London, 10 July 1990, lot 130.

Specialist note

Prince William Frederick, later Duke of Gloucester (1776-1834), was the third child and only son of Prince William Henry, Duke of Gloucester (1743-1805), a younger brother of George III, and Maria Walpole (1736-1807), the illegitimate daughter of Edward Walpole, son of Prime Minister Robert Walpole. In 1816, he married his cousin Mary (1776-1857), the fourth daughter of George III and Queen Charlotte. They had no children, both being 40 when they married. They lived at Bagshot Park, Surrey.
Grimaldi painted two miniatures of the Duke of Gloucester in 1791. The first he painted for the Duke while he was attending Trinity College, Cambridge. It cost 50 guineas and was after the painting of the Duke by Romney, which remains at Trinity today. The second miniature, the present lot, was kept by Grimaldi. It was exhibited in 1857 and in 1861.