Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger

Mrs Gordon Abbott, Boston, Massachusetts, 1953.

The following condition report is provided by Henry Gentle who is an external specialist and not an employee of Sotheby's: Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger Oil on oak panel, marouflaged The original oak panel has been reinforced with a new panel. A vertical join running the full length of the panel 5" in from the right hand edge, with associated paint loss of approximately ½" , can be detected. The join is stable and the paint loss has been retouched out. Re-touching to all four corners to mask out details of the sitter is noted in the catalogue . The paint layer is secure and stable and in a very good original condition. The paint texture is very well preserved and the fine details of the embroidery and fur stole are unaffected by any previous intervention. The colours retain their original vibrancy and saturate well. Overall, the painting is in a very good preserved state.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

A photographic record of the present painting, dated 1953, is in the Heinz archive, London. That photograph shows this portrait with an inscription along the top of the painting that reads: FRANCIS BELL LADY DERING. At either of the upper corners of the panel are two coats of arms; her paternal crest of the Bell family at the upper right, and the crest of her husband's family at the upper left with its distinctive black cross on a white background. At the bottom left corner was the inventory number: 15, and at the bottom right a further inventory number: 82.

The sitter was the daughter of Sir Robert Bell (1539–1577), Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer to Queen Elizabeth I, and Speaker of the House of Commons from 1572–1576, and Dorothea Beaupre of Beaupré Hall, Outwell, Norfolk. A significant number of Sir Robert Bell's descendants were among the early colonisers in Virginia.¹ His fifth son Philip Bell (b. 1574), the elder brother of the present sitter, became Captain and Governor of Bermuda, Barbados, and Founding Governor of Providence Island.

In 1596 Frances became the second wife of Sir Anthony Dering of Surrenden Manor, Puckly, Kent, who was the eldest son of Richard Dering and Margaret Twisdon. Her husband, Sir Anthony, was admitted to Gray's Inn in 1580 and was knighted at the Charter House on the 11 May 1603. He served as Lieutenant of the Tower, a position that led to Frances giving birth to her son Edward in the Tower of London. Sir Anthony's portrait, attributed to Van Somer, hangs at Parham Park, Sussex, along with several other Dering portraits including a portrait by Cornelis Janssens of Sir Anthony and Frances' son Sir Edward.² Each of these portraits seem to be inscribed with the identity of the sitter in the same pale gothic script as that which is visible in the 1953 Heintz archive photograph of the present portrait, suggesting that all these Dering family portraits were once in the same collection.

Sir Edward Dering (1598–1644), whilst at Cambridge, acquired a lifelong interest in antiquarian books and manuscripts, which he collected voraciously to form a significant antiquarian library at Surrenden. He was knighted by King Charles I in 1619, and was the 5th Baronet created by Charles I in 1627. He served as MP from Hythe, Kent, in 1625 and was later elected to the long Parliament in 1640. He was known to be a moderate, both politically and in his religious views, supporter of King Charles, and was among those who joined the King at Oxford, for which he was expelled by the Puritan Parliament in February in 1642 for treason. He died shortly afterwards from a brain tumour. Frances outlived her son, and died at the age of 79; she was buried at Saint Nichols Church, Puckley, on the 9 November 1657. The old manor house at Surrenden that served as home to the Dering family for over 500 years was converted into a boy's school in the early 20th century, and was eventually burned down in 1952.

1. See J.E. Bell and F.J. Bell, Sir Robert Bell and his early Virginia colony descendants, Tucson 2008.
2. See Lady E. Barnard (ed.) et al., Parham, London 2009, p. 42.