Portrait of Miss Grosvenor, Probably Maria Deborah Grosvenor
Framed: 1 1/2 × 1 1/4 inches (3.81 × 3.18 cm)
Ralph William M. Walker (1856–1945), London, by 1945 [1];
Purchased from his sale, The Collection of Objects of Vertu, Christie, Manson, and Woods, London, July 17, 1945, lot 129, as by Samuel Collins, Miss Grosvenor, by Bartle Charles Philip (1886–1949) and Elsie Gertrude (1888–1967) Kehoe, Saltdean, Sussex, 1945–1950 [2];
Purchased from Elsie Kehoe’s sale, Objects of Vertu, Fine Watches, Etc., Sotheby’s, London, June 15, 1950, lot 164, as Miss Grosvenor, by Leggatt Brothers, London, probably on behalf of Mr. John W. (1905–2000) and Mrs. Martha Jane (1906–2011) Starr, Kansas City, MO, 1950–2011 [3];
By descent to their son, Mr. John Philip (b. 1933) and daughter-in-law, Mrs. Barry Mann (b. 1939) Starr, Kansas City, MO, 2011–2017;
Given to their son, James Philip Starr (b. 1965), Kansas City, MO, 2017–2018;
His gift to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 2018.
Notes:
[1] Walker was a director of Nixon’s Navigation Company in 1909 and 1911, a coal mining company in South Wales. The company employed 1,558 men and output 1,250,000 tons of coal in 1897.
[2] Described in the catalogue as “Miss Grosvenor, wearing pink dress and cap edged with lace, by S. Collins, signed and dated 1770; and Master Grosvenor, wearing green coat, mauve cloak and white collar, by S. Collins, signed and dated 1770.” This lot included a miniature of Master Grosvenor, see 2018.11.5. According to Art Prices Current, “Kehoe” bought lot 129 for £73 10s.
[3] Described in the catalogue as “A Pair of Fine Miniatures of Master and Miss Grosvenor, by Samuel Cotes, signed and dated 1770, the boy with fair curly hair, a vandyke collar over a green tunic and mauve cloak, the girl with mauve and white cap and low-cut mauve dress, with white frilled edging, 1 1/2in. Formerly in the Collection of R.W.M. Walker, Esq.” Leggatt bought lot 164 for £52. Archival research has shown that Leggatt Brothers served as purchasing agents for the Starrs. See correspondence between Betty Hogg and Martha Jane Starr, May 15 and June 3, 1950, Nelson-Atkins curatorial files.
Catalogue of The Collection of Objects of Vertu (London: Christie, Manson, and Woods, July 17, 1945), 13, as by Samuel Collins, Miss Grosvenor.
Catalogue of Objects of Vertu, Fine Watches, Etc., (London: Sotheby’s, June 15, 1950), 21, as Miss Grosvenor.
Martha Jane and John W. Starr, “Collecting Portrait Miniatures,” Antiques 80, no. 5 (November 1961): 438–39, (repro.), as Miss Grosvenor.
Daphne Foskett, A Dictionary of British Miniature Painters (New York: Praeger, 1972), no. 178, pl. 63, (repro.), as Miss Grosvenor.
