Original Antique Print By George Vertue, 1748, Duchess Of Suffolk And Husband George Vertue (Engraver) Antique Prints

Size: 56.5 cm x 47.5 cm. Condition: Print in very good condition, strong impression on laid paper of the period, trimmed to the image, some very minor foxing. Publication: This copy of the print is an 18th century impression. The print was first published in 1748 and it was re-issued in 1776 (see British Museum 1853,0112.1932). It was one of nine plates of portraits of the Tudor Royal family made by Vertue. This large and scarce print is a double portrait which claims to be of Frances Brandon, Dutchess [sic] of Suffolk, and her husband Adrian Stokes, from an original painting by Lucas de Heere owned by Horace Walpole. This attribution is in fact incorrect, and the engraving is actually from a painting, now in the National Portrait Gallery, London, by Hans Eworth, and showing Mary Neville Fiennes, Lady Dacre, and her son Gregory Fiennes. Lady Fiennes' husband Thomas was convicted in 1541 for murder. This later proved false, and his estates were then returned to Lady Dacre, but it was too late for Thomas, who had been executed. The mistaken identification happened in the 17th century and was a convenient fiction because the youth of the "husband" fitted the story of Frances Brandon. She was the daughter of Mary Tudor and Charles Brandon, the Duke of Suffolk. She was also the mother of Lady Jane Grey, who became queen of England for nine days in 1553. Frances married her Master of the Horse, Adrian Stokes, in 1555. It was a safe marriage which kept her from further court intrigue. She died a few years afterwards from illness. George Vertue FSA (1684 – 24 July 1756) was an English engraver and antiquary, whose notebooks on British art of the first half of the 18th century are a valuable source for the period.