Object Type
Small portable portraits had been available in Britain for more than 200 years, but the method of transferring an engraved likeness onto enamelled copper was only developed around 1750. This plaque shows how successful the technique quickly became. Though an early example, with some black overpainting to hide slight printing deficiencies, the overall effect is pleasing and meant that transfer-printed portrait plaques could be made much more economically than hand-painted ones.

Place
This plaque was probably made in Birmingham, the main centre of metalworking in 18th-century England. Throughout the second half of the century, Birmingham was also the heart of a region famed for the manufacture of enamels. John Brooks, who claimed to have invented the technique of transfer-printing on enamel, and whose work this probably is, lived in Birmingham in the early 1750s. After moving to London to work as partner in the short-lived Battersea enamel factory, Brooks produced smaller, more delicate versions of the Gunning Sisters plaques.

People
Elizabeth Gunning (1734-1790) and her sister Maria were two Irish beauties who arrived in England without fortune or title in 1750. The 'gorgeous Gunnings' took London by storm and were constantly followed by mobs of admirers. By the spring of 1752, both had married aristocrats. Elizabeth married James, 6th Duke of Hamilton (1724-1758), and after his death was married in the following year to Colonel John Campbell (1723-1806), later 5th Duke of Argyll. By 1760, however, her good looks were ravaged by the onset of tuberculosis.