Anon. The Young Commodore

Hannah Theodosia Keele Collection

This picture forms part of an interesting collection of works that we have for sale which were once in the possession of Hannah Theodosia Keele (1796–1870). Hannah was daughter of George C. Skipton, who inherited Beech Hill in Londonderry, Northern Ireland, from his cousin Thomas Skipton in the 1800s. Hannah Theodosia married George St John Keele (1793–1870), son of a surgeon, in 1823 at St Botolph Aldgate, London.

The pictures exemplify the artistic tastes of early 19th-century England, with a particular emphasis on natural history subjects and ornithology. There are fine studies from George Shaw's 1797 'The Naturalist's Miscellany' and 'The Pomological Magazine', and a beautiful watercolour of a lost apple variety, the Red Ingestrie, as well as a number of bird studies. The collection also includes decorative pictures from cut paper and Victorian paper lace, and a group of vibrant paintings on Chinese pith—preserved in remarkable condition.