Page:The Ancestor Number 1.djvu/68

 32 THE ANCESTOR most interesting and curious ; the miniatures appear originally to have been on snufF boxes, as the following correspondence shows {Belvoir Castle MSS. ii. 275) : — George Kendal to the Duke of Rutland. 1786, January 10, Paris. I have made enquiries concerning your intended purchase at the Bailli de Breteuil's sale. I had seen the pictures several times, but I applied to our two best painters and connoisseurs, Le Brun and Robert, whom I met by appoint- ment at the late Bailli's house. The miniatures of Petitot are remarkably fine, particularly that of a woman, supposed to be Gabrielle D'Estrees ; the man, Louis XIV. The first of these the Bailli bought at the Duchess of Mazarin's sale for upwards of 1.300 French livres. The Same to the Same. 1786, Paris. I was mistaken in the prices of the pictures. The crowd and squabbles were so great that my ears were deceived in the bidding, luckily on the right side, as you may see from Le Brun's note. Last night I purchased the two snuff boxes, with the miniatures, by Petitot, on them, at the prices in the enclosed note. I thought them dear, but was assured by the connoisseurs that they were very cheap — the one for 4.70 1. remarkably so. Queen Anne in enamel hy Charles Boit was no doubt pre- sented to the family as a ' Memento Mori/ for on the back of the miniature case, below the queen's monogram, are a death's head and cross bones 1 This miniature is signed C. Boit, and represents the queen with more character in her face than is generally ascribed to her. The portrait of Charles II. is most interesting : it represents him as a young and handsome man ; the complexion is very dark, and we can understand and sym- pathize with Henrietta Maria when she wrote to her friend Madame St. George during his infancy : ' I will send you his portrait as soon as he is a little fairer ; for at present he is so dark that I am ashamed of him.' Unfortunately this miniature (in oil on copper) is not signed ; in beauty and freedom of treatment it recalls Vandyck. Lady Mary Wortley Montagu in a curious Oriental costume is an interesting work by that erratic genius, J. E. Liotard (an almost exact replica of this miniature is in Lord WharnclifFe's fine collection). Liotard also painted several miniatures of the famous Marquis of Granby, Commander-in-Chief of the British Forces in 1766. A small crayon sketch of him at the age of twenty, when doing the grand tour, is signed ' Le Marquis de Granby peint a