Fine Pottery and Porcelain - 5th February 2025
Lot 1164
A rare South Staffordshire Jacobite portrait combined scent bottle and bonbonniere, c.1765, modelled
Estimate £1,000 - £2,000 | Hammer £3024
Inc. Buyers Premium
Description
A rare South Staffordshire Jacobite portrait combined scent bottle and bonbonniere, c.1765, modelled as the head and shoulders of Flora MacDonald, wearing a purple and yellow tartan shawl, a pink rose in her hair, the hinged cover of the bonbonniere painted with flowers, some restoration to the bonbonniere's cover, 7.7cm.
After Richard Wilson's portrait of Flora MacDonald, now in the Scottish Portrait Gallery, believed to have been painted c.1747 when MacDonald was released from the Tower of London. Flora MacDonald (1722-90) is best known for having helped Charles Edward Stuart (Bonnie Prince Charlie) evade government troops following the Battle of Culloden - disguising him as an Irish maid called Betty Burke. Cf. Therle and Bernard Hughes, English Painted Enamels, p 120, fig 69 for an example from the Ionides Collection.