It was among the items from the Worcestershire estate of Sir Francis and Lady Anne Winnington offered by Bleasdale’s in Warwick on November 30.
Measuring 8 x 5in (20 x 13cm), and housed in a rosewood frame, it is inscribed on the counter enamel Henry 8th Painted in Enamel by William Bone after The Original by Holbein, 6 Clarendon Square, London 1833, with the frame inscribed in ink Miers Miniature Frame Maker, 35, Princes Street, Soho Square.
It was exhibited in 1833 at the Royal Academy, with a typed label suggesting it was purchased by the Winningtons from the York dealer Charles E Thornton in 1958 for £122 and 10 shillings.
William Bone Senior was the fourth son of Henry Bone (1755-1834), enamel painter to George III, George IV and William IV, and this image is related to another, much larger copy of the Whitehall mural made by his father the previous year for Joseph Neeld, heir to the fortune of the royal goldsmith Philip Rundell.
Measuring 14 x 9in (35 x 22cm), and carrying an inscription dated June 1823, it sold at Christie’s King Street in November 2011 for a record £260,000 (plus premium).
This smaller rendition sold, much as expected, for a more modest £6800 (plus premium).
The Bones’ technique of creating an enamel was to produce a preparatory drawing in pencil that could be transferred to tracing paper and finally to a primed copper plate.
The drawing for this image forms part of the Bone family albums acquired by the National Portrait Gallery at the end of the 19th century.
