CIRCLE OF ROBERT PEAKE | Portrait of Sir Edward Pytts of Kyre Wyard and Sheriff of Worcestershire and his grandson, Edward Pytts, both full-length, the former in a black doublet and hose with a dog at his feet, the latter in a richly embroidered red and white dress, holding a sword

By descent through the Pytts at Kyre Ward, until 1832;

By inheritance to William Lacon Childe of Kinlet (1786–1880);

By inheritance to Rev. Edward Baldwyn-Childe (d. 1898);

By inheritence to Mr Childe-Freean of Kyre Park;

With D.T. Sainsbury, Bournemouth, purchased from the above in March 1931;

From whom acquired by Captain Sherburn, in May 1931;

With Sabin Galleries, London, June 1967 (when advertised in the The Burlington Magazine);

From whom acquired by Drue Heinz, Ascot Park, Berkshire;

Anonymous sale ('The Property of a Lady'), London, Christie’s, 22 November 2006, lot 3, for £187,200;

With Mark Weiss, 2007 (as English School, circa 1612), from whom acquired.

The Pytts family were yeomen in the west of Worcestershire in the 15th century, and by the time of this portrait the family had moved into the ranks of the gentry. Sir Edward Pytts (1546–1618), who had secured the lucrative legal office of Filazer of the Common Pleas, acquired Kyre Park in 1576, and the manor of Ivington, two miles south of Leominster, in 1590. He was knighted on 23 July 1603 in the Royal Gardens at Whitehall before the king's Coronation. He married Elizabeth, sister of Sir Thomas Wilford, Sheriff of Worcestershire, in 1612.

His grandson Edward Pytts (circa 1606–72), shown here at the age of about 6 years old, was the eldest son and heir apparent to Sir James Pytts, of Kyre Ward, and his wife Mary, daughter of Sir Arthur Heveningham, of Heveningham, Suffolk. The first of his family to enter Parliament, Edward held various seats in Worcestershire throughout his career, and although in 1654 he was considered an opponent of Cromwell, only two years later he was one of the group of Parliamentarians who voted to offer him the crown. He married Elizabeth Sandys, of Ombersley, the daughter and heiress of one of the Members for Leominster in the Short Parliament, further increasing his family's interest in Herefordshire.