Frances Crewe (b. 1791) as a Child
attributed to Anne Mee (London c.1760 – Hammersmith 1851)
Category
Art / Miniatures
Date
Unknown
Materials
Watercolour on ivory, plaited hair, metal, glass
Measurements
50 x 40 mm; 65 mm (Height); 57.5 mm (Width)
Collection
Calke Abbey, Derbyshire
NT 290315.1
Summary
Portrait miniature, watercolour on ivory, Frances Crewe (b. 1791) as a Child attributed to Anne Mee (London c.1760 – Hammersmith 1851). Head and shoulders portrait of a young child, turned slightly to right, gazing at spectator, in a white dress with blue waist-sash, brown eyes, long fair hair, aged about five. Cloudy sky background. Formerly described as a portrait of Sir George Crewe, 8th Bt. (1795-1844) as a Child.
Full description
The pendant was bequeathed by Nanny, Lady Crewe (1765/6-1827) as ‘the miniature portrait of my most tenderly beloved husband Sir Henry Crewe Baronet encircled with a plaiting of his hair and set in gold on the back of which is the miniature portrait of my oldest daughter when a child’. Lady Crewe bequeathed it to her unmarried daughters and then, in the event of all daughters marrying or the death of her last unmarried daughter, to the owner of Calke Abbey to be ‘considered as an heir loom apportioned to the ffamily Mansion’ (National Archives PROB/11/1699/16). It was recorded in the 1886 inventory of the family jewel case as a ‘miniature of Sir Henry Harpur Crewe & Frances Elizabeth his oldest daughter by Mrs Mee’ (Derbyshire Record Office, D2375/H/F/2/27).
Provenance
Portrait miniatures of Sir Henry Crewe, 7th Bt. (1763-1819) and Frances Crewe (b. 1791) attributed to Anne Mee (c.1760-1851). Bequeathed by Nanny, Lady Crewe (1765/6-1827) to her unmarried daughters and then as an heirloom to the owner of Calke Abbey. Recorded in the 1886 inventory of the family jewel case. Thence by descent to Henry Harpur-Crewe (1921-91) and transferred with Calke Abbey and its contents to the National Trust by the Treasury in lieu of Capital Transfer Tax in 1985 with an endowment provided by the National Heritage Memorial Fund.
Makers and roles
attributed to Anne Mee (London c.1760 – Hammersmith 1851), miniaturist