HENRY CHARLES HEATH (BRITISH 1829-1898)
Portrait miniature of Mrs Willie James, née Evelyn Elizabeth Forbes, wearing white dress with pearl choker
signed, H C Heath, on the obverse, left hand edge
watercolour on ivory
oval, 50 mm (2 ins) high
gold frame surmounted by a gold bow, engraved ‘Willie from Evie’ on the top rim and ‘December 7^th 1891’ along the bottom. The portrait within central oval aperture with ivory border, the reverse with central glazed aperture containing locks of hair surrounded by red glass (glass cracked)

Henry Charles Heath was appointed Miniature Painter to Queen Victoria in 1890. He was a leading artist in the late nineteenth century revival of portrait miniatures and a founding member of the Society of Miniaturists in 1895. He studied at the Royal Academy and trained under Robert Thorburn. He exhibited ninety-nine works at the RA between 1851 and 1898.

The inscriptions on the gold frame indicate that this miniature was a present from Evelyn James to her husband William Dodge James on his 37th birthday.

Mrs Willie James (1867-1929) was a society hostess in the 1890s and 1900s. Born Evelyn Elizabeth Forbes, the daughter of a Scottish baronet, she and her wealthy American husband were part of the Prince of Wales’s Marlborough House set. The Prince, later Edward VII, was godfather to their son.

She is immortalised as a supposed mistress of the king in a scurrilous poem by Hilaire Belloc:

'There will be bridge and booze ‘till after three
And, after that, a lot of them will grope
Along the corridors in robes de nuit,
Pyjamas, or some other kind of dope.
A sturdy matron will be sent to cope
With Lord ---, who isn’t quite the thing,
And give his wife the leisure to elope,
And Mrs. James will entertain the King!'

Hilaire Belloc (1870-1953)