Sir Henry Crewe, 7th Bt (1763-1819)
attributed to Anne Mee (London c.1760 – Hammersmith 1851)
Category
Art / Miniatures
Date
circa 1795
Materials
Watercolour on ivory, plaited hair, metal, glass
Collection
Calke Abbey, Derbyshire
NT 290315.2
Summary
Portrait miniature, watercolour on ivory, Sir Henry Crewe, 7th Bt (1763-1819) attributed to Anne Mee (c.1760-1851), c.1795. Head and shoulders portrait, turned slightly to the right, wearing a brown coat, yellow waistcoat and white cravat. Grey eyes, powdered grey hair, pale complexion. Dark grey background.
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