The Limner Company

The Limner Company Est. 2023 by leading portrait miniatures consultant Emma Rutherford. We sell miniatures and offer a range of consultant services. By appointment in London, UK.

Clients include the National Portrait Gallery, Victoria & Albert Museum and National Trust. The only independent, freelance consultant for portrait miniatures, Emma divides her time between a consultancy at Philip Mould in Dover Street, London (www.philipmould.com), curating private collections and writing.

04/09/2026

with Dress Historian Jacqui Ansell ()

The clothes the sitter is wearing in this portrait miniature may seem a little old-fashioned for something painted in 1783… Dress Historian Jacqui Ansell says that’s an intentional choice made by this lady – and many others in the 18th century – to dress in 17th-century fashion for portraits. By doing so, the nouveau riche can fabricate connections to ancestors from that time for a sense of legitimacy.

Ansell also says that this decision could better ensure a portrait does not age too quickly. Fashions were changing so frequently, but this look had stood the test of time for a while. She also says the ‘van Dyck’ style costume in this portrait miniature help make it feel ‘romantic’ and ‘exciting’.

This clip is from Jacqui Ansell’s talk during Classic Art London (). Stay tuned for more from this talk.

John Smart, Portrait miniature of a Lady in a blue gown with lace collar and powdered pink hair, 1783. For sale with The Limner Company.

“Lover’s eye” miniatures like these historically served as gifts for secret paramours.Eye miniatures typically have roma...
03/09/2026

“Lover’s eye” miniatures like these historically served as gifts for secret paramours.

Eye miniatures typically have romantic significance, often exchanged between clandestine lovers… In fact, they were at the centre of the great romances and affairs of the 18th and early 19th century – including the affair between George, Prince of Wales and Maria Fitzherbert.

Along with an eye miniature George sent a letter to Maria: ‘I send you a Parcel. . . and I send you at the same time an Eye, if you have not totally forgotten the whole countenance. I think the likeness will strike you’.

The eye of Emma, Lady Hamilton (1765-1815) – mistress to Lord Nelson (1758-1805) – was also apparently presented to Nelson as he left for the Battle of Trafalgar.[1]

The crop of these miniatures allowed them to be worn outwardly without exposing the identity of the lover whose likeness it captured. As such, they had an air of mystery around them.

These eyes are often referred to as “lover’s eyes” – symbolising the secret nature of these intimate gifts.

Pictured are some of the eye miniatures sold by The Limner Company in recent years, including a rare example of eight eye miniatures set into a single box.

[1] Sold Bonhams, London, 5 July 2005, lot 145.

Happy international dog day! 🐕What better excuse for introducing the dogs of The Limner Company? Like Hogarth and his pu...
26/08/2026

Happy international dog day! 🐕

What better excuse for introducing the dogs of The Limner Company? Like Hogarth and his pug Trump and Madame de Pompadour’s Bebe and Mimi, the team here have some adorable furry friends… swipe for more! 

If you’re looking for something special to celebrate man’s best friend, this portrait miniature of a Pug is currently available on our website. 

***BRITISH SCHOOL, A portrait miniature of a Pug reclining on a red silk cushion, circa 1740, watercolour. For sale with The Limner Company, £2,750***

This miniature may have been set inside a s***f box and is a perfect example of the love people have always felt for their pets. Portrait miniatures were not only used to immortalise spouses, siblings, parents, or childen…

Today’s we are looking at two of the most on-trend children of the 1790s - the daughters of Georgiana, Duchess of Devo...
21/08/2026

Today’s we are looking at two of the most on-trend children of the 1790s - the daughters of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire (by William Grimaldi).
It’s hard to overstate the celebrity of Georgiana and her influence on every aspect of late Georgian and Regency society - from politics to entertainment to hairstyles she led the way…dressing her daughters Harriett and Georgiana in simple white cotton dresses began a revolution in freedom of movement for both boys and girls of the 18th century.
Both s*xes spent their infancy and toddlerhood in virtually the same garments, the infant’s long gown or “slip” and toddler’s ankle-length, back-fastening “frock.” Under the slip went a shirt and stays, the period term for corset. The corset for children was not tightly laced but was thought to give much needed support to the growing frame.
By the time these Devonshire sisters grew into teens, older women were also wearing similar muslin dresses with a few differences - including a pointed waistline and a V-shaped pair of pleats decorating the bodice, echoing the line of women’s bodices and their stomachers (the center bodice panel inserted between the edges of the gown).
Georgiana and Harriet were close as sisters, and this remained the case throughout their life, though the cards they were dealt in love proved quite different. While Georgiana was married with a huge dowry to George Howard, Viscount Morpeth (1773-1848) (she lived at 𝐂𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐥𝐞 𝐇𝐨𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐝 ) and had twelve children, Harriet disgraced the family by giving birth to an illegitimate child in Italy.
Harriet’s personal life continued to be complicated and unhappy after her marriage in 1809 to Granville Leveson-Gower (1773-1846). Much akin to other members of her family, Leveson-Gower was entangled in a love affair. This was with Harriet’s aunt and namesake, Henrietta, Countess of Bessborough (1761-1821).
This beautiful miniature, left unfinished in Grimaldi’s studio and kept by his family, was recently sold by The Limner Company. More information on our website (link in bio.)

As this week’s comes from the South of France (current temp 34 degrees), we thought we’d look at those British sitters...
07/08/2026

As this week’s comes from the South of France (current temp 34 degrees), we thought we’d look at those British sitters painted in the hot and humid climes of Madras, India.
John Smart decided in 1785 that he would make his fortune following the East India Company to Chennai (now Madras) and set off on the 5 month journey by boat. His depictions of sitters struggling in the heat provide a wonderfully detailed and honest record of the Georgians abroad. Dress was barely adapted to cope with the climate - and often an Indian subject by Smart can be identified immediately by the sheen of sweat on their skin. This first image, only recently recognised as likely Smart’s daughter Anna Maria, is in the collection Yale Center for British Art . Dated 1788 she had travelled with her father to India aged 18. Here she is dressed relatively informally in crisp cottons, her loose hair frizzed in the humidity. Anna Maria married in India, returning to London in 1795. Her younger sister Sophia was not as lucky, dying in India after the birth of a son in 1792.
While Smart records here the day dress that could be slightly adapted for the heat (still, those multiple petticoats 🥵) other sitters wore clothing better suited to English drizzle.
This was particularly true of the military as evidenced by the sunburned, sweating face of Alexander Dyce, painted in full uniform in 1790 (image 3, previously with The Limner co.) or fifteen year old Alexander Johnstone, shown in image 4, wearing the same trussed up outfit as if he were in an English schoolroom.

Just started reading ‘The Garden’ by Nick Newman and the cover reminded me of this strange but wonderful miniature that ...
01/08/2026

Just started reading ‘The Garden’ by Nick Newman and the cover reminded me of this strange but wonderful miniature that we sold last year…painted by THOMAS HARPER (FL.1817-1843), it predated the popularity of the Flower Fairies by a few decades - as well as the scenes painted by Richard Dadd (who is the subject of a new exhibition Royal Academy). It is now not possible to comprehend the circumstances behind this rare composition, but one explanation may be that it was inspired by John Keat’s poem ‘Isabella’ or ‘The Pot of Basil’ (A Story from Boccaccio), published in 1818. This story of love and romance included many references to flowers and in particular, the rose. It was popular with pre-Raphaelite painters who painted the heroine Isabella.
Is this perhaps a fantasy portrait of the artist’s wife?
in his book Victorian Fairy Painting, Jeremy Maas looks at this form of artistic expression as part of the dichotomy of Victorian life. He states that; ‘No other type of painting concentrates so many of the opposing elements of the Victorian psyche: the desire to escape the drear hardships of daily existence; the stirrings of new attitudes toward s*x, stifled by religious dogma; a passion for the unseen; the birth of psychoanalysis; the latent revulsion against the exactitude of the new invention of photography’.
The work was the only one of its kind that I had ever seen…

Forget Romeo and Juliet...meet the doomed lovers, Abelard and Heloise, a popular subject in 18th-century literature and ...
30/07/2026

Forget Romeo and Juliet...meet the doomed lovers, Abelard and Heloise, a popular subject in 18th-century literature and in the visual arts.

FRENCH SCHOOL (18th century) Portrait miniature of Abelard and Heloise, 60 mm (2 1/2 in) diam. Gilt-metal frame with ribbon and acanthus leaves surmounts and easel back.
For sale with The Limner Company - £1,250.

In 1717, Alexander Pope published a verse epistle entitled ‘Eloisa to Abelard’, based on a well-known medieval story. Subsequently, the characters came to appear in the visual arts – with painters and engravers producing images of scenarios where forbidden love is shown in moments of extreme tenderness.

Peter Abelard and Héloïse d’Argenteuil lived in France in the late 11th /early 12th-century and their story is known from Abelard’s autobiographical writings the Historia Calamitatum.

Abelard was born into a wealthy family in Brittany. Determined to become a scholar, he studied philosophy and religion. In 1115, Abelard met Heloise who was living in Paris with her uncle Fulbert. Abelard was then 37 years old and an established teacher of philosophy and theology, while she was in her early 20s but already known to be a brilliant scholar. He offered to teach her philosophy and the two fell in love. After Heloise became pregnant, Abelard moved her to his family home in Brittany where she gave birth to a son, whom they named Astrolabe.

The pair married in secret before Abelard sent Heloise to a convent in Argenteuil for her protection. Heloise’s uncle Fulbert took revenge on Abelard by having a band of men break-in to his home and mutilate and castrate him. The severely injured Abelard decided to enter religious life and thereafter lived in a monastery and likewise persuaded Heloise to enter a nunnery. The lovers would continue to communicate however, and their letters are full of philosophical and theological musings, as well as reminiscences concerning their love for one another.

17/07/2026

Dress Historian Jacqui Ansell () joined us for a talk on the accuracy of the costume in the Netflix series ‘Bridgerton’.

Stay tuned for more clips from this talk to learn about Georgian fashion.

Artworks featured:

1. JOHN SMART (1741-1811), Portrait miniatures of The Hon Mrs William Irby née Mary Blackman (c.1744-1792) and The Hon William Irby (1750-1830), 1781. For Sale with The Limner Company.

2. JOHN BOGLE (1746-1803), Portrait miniature of The Hon. Mrs Catherine Stewart (née Honyman) (d.1833), 1801. For Sale with The Limner Company.

3. RICHARD COSWAY, R.A (1742-1821), Portrait miniature of Lady Charlotte Townshend, née Loftus (1792-1866), wearing a plum coloured velvet gown with high ruff collar, 1812. For Sale with The Limner Company.

10/07/2026

When loving your husband became fashionable

For sale with The Limner Company. Details on our website.

Address

London
SW1Y5

Opening Hours

Monday 9:30am - 6pm
Tuesday 9:30am - 6pm
Wednesday 9:30am - 6pm
Thursday 9:30am - 6pm
Friday 9:30am - 6pm

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when The Limner Company posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Shortcuts

Share

Category