Ludwig Philipp, Duke of Simmern thumbnail 1
Ludwig Philipp, Duke of Simmern thumbnail 2
Image of Gallery in South Kensington
Request to view at the Prints & Drawings Study Room, level F , Case RMC, Shelf 1, Box C

Ludwig Philipp, Duke of Simmern

Portrait Miniature
ca. 1620-1625 (painted)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

This miniature is one of a group that has been set onto vellum mounts inscribed with the name of the sitter. These vellum mounts are later additions. It was thought that these secondary mounts dated from the late 17th century, but they were probably added in the early 19th century.


Object details

Categories
Object type
TitleLudwig Philipp, Duke of Simmern (generic title)
Materials and techniques
Watercolour on vellum put down on pasteboard
Brief description
Portrait miniature of Ludwig Philipp, Duke of Simmern, watercolour on vellum, painted by Peter Oliver, 1620-1625.
Physical description
Portrait, slightly to right and looking to front, and wearing a ruff. Features in dark brown hatches with touches of sanguine and grey, white highlights in the eyes, red in the lips, on a pale creamy carnation ground; hair in dark brown and black over a pale brown wash, stippled in dark colour at the hair-line; ruff in impasted white over a pale brown; doublet modelled in pale grey and black over black wash; background a solid blue wash, shadowed above the shoulder in fine dark grey hatches; on vellum put down on pasteboard, apparently a playing card (diamond?) and the whole mounted in a rectangular vellum, ruled and inscribed in gold with a crimson margin.

Frame: A gilt rim of V-section knurled and channelled between bevels, the glass held in rebate and with a toothed copper strip to close the back; designed for fitting to a fabric-covered cushion frame.
Dimensions
  • Height: 49mm
  • Width: 39.5mm
Dimensions taken from John Murdoch Seventeenth-century English Miniatures in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum. London: The Stationery Office, 1997.
Styles
Marks and inscriptions
  • 'PO' (Signed in gold, centre right)
  • 'LVDOVICVS / Phi=lippus / Dux Sime-rensis' (Inscribed on the mount)
Credit line
Bequeathed by Mrs Doris Hershorn
Object history
From 'Artists of the Tudor Court', V&A exhibition, 1983, entry for P.23-1975: This miniature once belonged to a group of ten, four of which are now in the V&A [P.23-1975, P.24-1975, P.27-1975 and P.28-1975 - all framed in the same way with the miniature laid onto a later piece of parchment and inscribed with details of the sitter]. The earliest account of their history (Lord Ronald Sutherland Gower, The Great Historic Galleries of England, London, 1881, pl. xx) is highly romanticized and claims provenance from James II via Louis XIV which cannot be proved. Their certain history is as follows: acquired in Paris by James Edwards (1757-1816), bookseller and bibliographer, probably in the aftermath of the Treaty of Amiens; sold Christie’s July 15th 1816 (lot 61); acquired by the Rev. Thomas Butt of Kinnersley, Shropshire, who married Edward’s widow; by descent to Capt. H. Edwards-Heathcote, Belton Hall, Market Drayton; sold Christie’s June 13th 1928 (lot 45); purchased by Mrs Doris Herschorn; bequeathed, 1975.

Subjects depicted
Summary
This miniature is one of a group that has been set onto vellum mounts inscribed with the name of the sitter. These vellum mounts are later additions. It was thought that these secondary mounts dated from the late 17th century, but they were probably added in the early 19th century.
Bibliographic reference
Murdoch, John. Seventeenth-century English Miniatures in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum. London: The Stationery Office, 1997.
Collection
Accession number
P.28-1975

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Record createdJuly 8, 2003
Record URL
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