ADAM'S Country House Collections Day II - 14th October 2025

103 674 CIRCLE OF CORNELIS VAN DER VOORT (AMSTERDAM 1576–1624) OR WERNER VAN DEN VALCKERT (AMSTERDAM C.1580–AFTER 1627) Portrait of a Lady, in a black gown with a white ruff Oil on oak panel 68 x 51.5cm Dated upper left 1622 and upper right August 29 € 1,000 - 1,500 675 A GEORGE III CARVED GILTWOOD OVAL WALL MIRROR with scrollwork cresting, and elaborately leaf carved frame and ribbon tied apron, with R. Strahan & Co trade label verso. 90cm high, 69cm wide € 2,000 - 2,500 675A AN IRISH GEORGE III MAHOGANY FRAMED HUMP-BACK SOFA, mid 18th century, retaining the cross-stitch cov- ering embroidered by Lady Betty Fownes, with recess scrolled leaf carved arms, on three short cabriole legs, with leaf carved scroll brackets and squared paw feet, two splayed square legs to the back, sprung in the 19th century, 98cm high, 186cm deep, 70cm deep € 5,000 - 8,000 Provenance: Lady Betty Fownes of Woodstock, bequeathed to her granddaughter Caroline Tighe who married Charles Hamilton of Ham- wood, Co. Meath, thence by descent Betty Ponsonby was unhappily married to Sir William Fownes of Woodstock. Her granddaughter records, “though an Earl’s daughter, [she] could only write a very short letter... in a very large hand... but poor Lady Betty Fownes spent too much of her time working cross-stitch, as many sets of chairs can testify”. She died in 1778. A set has been re-assembled in a private Co. Kildare collection, and another is in a private Co. Wicklow collection. Both have the same provenance as the pres- ent lot. It is likely that much of this furniture was in the Fownes’ town house, 37 Dominick Street, which was retained by the Hamiltons well into the 20th century. Depicted half-length against a plain dark background, the sitter is shown with hands clasped, a gold ring visible on her right hand, and dressed in a black gown with simple cuffs and a crisp white starched ruff. Her dark cap is edged with lace. The painting is dated 29 August 1622 in the upper right and left corners. The restrained palette, sober costume, and direct realism are characteristic of early 17th-cen- tury portraiture in the Northern Netherlands. The emphasis on stark contrast between the sitter’s pale face and hands and the black costume, combined with the rigid pose and faint- ly softened modelling, aligns this work closely with the production of Amsterdam portraitists active around 1615–1630, notably Cornelis van der Voort and Werner van den Valckert. Both painters were among the most accomplished portraitists of the Amsterdam bourgeois elite prior to Rembrandt’s arrival in the city.