MRS ANNE MEE (née FOLDSTONE) (BRITISH circa 1770/5 -1851)
A pair of wedding portrait miniatures of Lady Isabel Anne Dashwood (1772-1858) and her husband Sir Francis Dashwood (1772-1828), circa 1793, he wearing blue coat, cream waistcoat, white stock and cravat; she wearing a low cut white dress, her powdered hair dressed with a white bandeau fastened beneath her chin
watercolour on ivory
gold frames
ovals, 77 mm (3 ¼ in) high

(2)

Lady Isabel was the daughter of James Maitland, 7th Earl of Lauderdale. The Lauderdale were a powerful and ancient Scottish family, but the daughter of the 7th Earl expanded the family horizons by moving to South Africa with her husband, Sir Francis Dashwood, in 1797. Having survived what must have been great challenges in their move abroad, including the arrival of two sons (Francis in 1809 and Maitland in 1813, born when Isabel Anne was in her late 30's and early 40's), the marriage foundered when their eldest son was sent to Eton in 1819. Isabel Anne returned to England with her sons, never to return to the Cape. Sir Francis was made President of the Lombard Bank and appointed 'Receiver of Revenue' and 'Collector of Customs' at Simons Bay. This pair of miniatures, was probably painted to commemorate the betrothal and subsequent marriage of the couple, in June 1793 - the same year in which the artist Anne Foldstone married her husband Joseph Mee. Anne was described by the poet William Hayley as a 'young female genius in miniature'. She became a professional portrait painter at a young age, and after the death of her father (also an artist) meant that she became the sole support of her mother and eight brothers and sisters. Anne was introduced to Queen Charlotte and with her sister she was placed to board with a Madame de Lafitte who lived in a house in the cloisters at Windsor. One of Madame de Lafitte's duties was to read German with the princesses, and she was often accompanied by Anne who would paint miniatures of the Queen and her daughters. After her marriage to Joseph Mee, Anne did not give up her profession however, it is recorded that her husband stipulated that she must paint 'Ladies Only' and they were not to be accompanied into the painting room by gentlemen. In 1814 Anne completed an important commission for George IV to paint a series of large miniature portraits of fashionable ladies - these were engraved as 'The Gallery of Beauties of the Court of ... George the Third'.

This lot is subject to CITES regulations