Similarly, the "Hampton Court portrait" derives such interest as it possesses from the fact that William IV. bought it as a por trait of Shakespeare, and lodged it in the Palace. Similarly unac ceptable is the "H. Danby Seymour portrait" which was lent to the National Portrait Exhibition of 1866 (said to be still in the possession of that family). It is a fine three-quarter length in the Miervelt manner. The "Lytton portrait," a gift made to a former Lord Lytton after it had emerged from Windsor Castle, is mainly interesting as having been copied by Miller in his original profile engraving of Shakespeare. The "Rendelsham" and "Crooks" portraits also belong to the class of capital paintings rep resenting some one other than Shakespeare ; and the same may be said of the "Grafton" or "Winston" portrait, the "Sanders," the "Gilliland" (an old man's head absurdly advanced by Wivell), the striking "Thorne Court portrait," the "Aston Cantlow," the "Burn," the "Gwennet," and the "Wilson" portraits, and others.
Miniature-painting has assumed a certain importance in relation to the subject. The "Welbeck Abbey," or "Harleian miniature," is that which Walpole caused to be engraved by Vertue for Pope's edition of Shakespeare (1723-1725), but which Oldys declared, incorrectly, to be a juvenile portrait of James I. According to Scharf, it belonged to Robert Harley, 1st earl of Oxford, but whence it came is not known. It has been denounced as a piece of arrant sycophancy that Pope adopted this beautiful but unau thenticated portrait, simply in order to please the aristocratic patron of his literary circle. It measures 2 in. high; Vertue's ex quisite engraving, executed in 1721, enlarged it to 51 in., and be came the "authority" for numerous copies, British and foreign. The "Somerville" or "Hilliard miniature," long owned by Lord and Lady Northcote, is claimed to have descended from Shake speare's friend, Somerville of Edstone, grandfather of the poet Somerville. It was first known in 1818 when in the possession of Sir James Bland Burges. It is certainly by Hilliard, but it hardly conforms to the appearance of the poet. The well-known "Auriol miniature," now in America, is one of the least sympa thetic and the least acceptable of the so-called Shakespeare minia tures. Before it came into the hands of the collector, Charles Auriol, its history is unknown. The other principal miniatures of interest, but lacking authority, are the "Waring," the "Tomkin son," the doubtful "Isaac Oliver," the "Mackey" and "Glen" miniatures, and those presented to the Shakespeare Memorial by Lord Ronald Gower, T. Kite, and Henry Graves. These are all
contemporary or early works. In this category are a number of enamels by accomplished artists, the chief of them Henry Bone, R.A., H. P. Bone, and W. Essex.
Several recorded painted portraits have disappeared, other than those already mentioned; these include the "Earl of Oxford por trait" and the "Challis portrait." The "Countess of Zetland's portrait," which had its adherents, was destroyed by fire.
There is a class of honestly produced memorial paintings in which earnest attempts have been made to reconstitute the face and form of the poet, combining within them the best and most characteristic features of the earliest portraits. The most success ful of these is that by Ford Madox Brown, in Manchester. Those by J. F. Rigaud, R.A., and Henry Howard, R.A., take lower rank. The "Booker portrait," which gained wide publicity in Stratford, might be included here as well as the heads by P. Kramer and Rumpf, which are among those executed in Germany.
"Faked" portraits have been at times as ardently accepted as those with some solid claim to consideration. The "Shake speare Marriage picture" was discovered in 1872. It is a genuine Dutch picture of man and wife weighing out money in the fore ground—a frequent subject—while through an open door Shake speare and, presumably, Anne Hathaway are seen going through the ceremony of handfasting. The inscription and the Shake speare head (probably the whole group and open door) are "faked." The "Rawson portrait," inscribed with the poet's name, is "faked"; it is really a beautiful little study of the Lord Keeper Coventry by Janssen. The "Matthias Alexander portrait" shows ;a modern head on an old body. The "Belmount Hall portrait" with its pseudo-Garrick ms. inscription on the back, is in the present writer's opinion, not genuine. In the early part of the 19th cen tury two clever "restorers," Holder and Zincke, made a fairly lucrative trade of producing imaginary portraits of Shakespeare and others. Many of these impostures won acceptance, some times by the help of the fine engravings which were made of them.
Such are the "Stace" and the "Dunford" portraits—so named after the dealers who put them forward : of the latter a copy is in existence known as the "Dr. Clay portrait." The former is based upon the portrait of Robert Carr, earl of Somerset. There are the two "Winstanley portraits," the "Bishop Newton," the "Cygnus Avoniae," the "Norwich" or "Boardman," the "Bellows" or "Talma" portraits—most of them, as well as others, traceable to one or other or both of the enterprising restorers thus named.