An 18th century English needlework and mezzotint picture

The Right Honble Maria Margaretta*, Lady North & Grey

Consisting of sections cut from a mezzotint and laid on a canvas worked in silk and wool with lace applied at the sleeves and neckline. The mezzotint, of which complete versions exist in the collections of both the British Museum and the National Portrait Gallery, was executed between 1710 and 1714 by John Simon after a portrait by Sir Godfrey Kneller of Lady North & Grey (1690–1762), the daughter of Cornelius de Yong, Lord of Elmeet, and wife, first, to Lt.-Gen. William North, 6th Baron North & 2nd Baron Grey and second, to Patrick Murray, 5th Lord Elibank. Within a short period following the issue of the mezzotint, the maker of the needlework, leaving the canvas bare beneath the print, followed the pose and dress of the sitter closely, but the background of oak tree, butterfly and flowers is her own. The needlework, 40cm high and 28.3cm wide, in a faux tortoiseshell veneered frame 43cm high and 32.7cm wide. The older backboard with a Frost and Reed label numbered ‘2000’ and dated ‘12/12/1897(?)’, below the inscribed date ‘1734’, and an indistinct paper label.

Provenance: The collection of Percival D. Griffiths

Vide: English Needlework 1600-1740 - The Percival D. Griffiths Collection, DeGregorio & Jussel, Yale 2023, N110, p. 163

*Despite the name of the sitter, the then Lady North & Grey, being written as ‘Margaretta Maria’ at the base of the mezzotint, the correct order of the given names - according to correspondence held at the Bodleian and a design at the Soane Museum from the offices of Robert & James Adam for her monument in Aberlady Church, East Lothian (unused, as the existing monument was carved by Antonio Canova, with an inscription in Latin by Samuel Johnson) - should be ‘Maria Margaretta’.

Framed size 58cm (22⅞”) high and 55.4cm (21¾”) wide.