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LOT 49

Follower of Gawen Hamilton, Scottish 1698-1737- A conversation piece with...

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Follower of Gawen Hamilton, Scottish 1698-1737- A conversation piece with elegant figures playing backgammon and taking tea in an interior; oil on canvas, 102x127cm Provenance: Private collection of Victor Aubrey Lownes III (April 17, 1928-January 11, 2017). Lownes was an executive for HMH Publishing Company Inc., later known as Playboy Enterprises, from 1955 through the early 1980s. Note: The conversation piece as a type of portrait painting became fashionable in England during the late 1720s and early 1730s. The present lot is typical for this genre, with an elegant group of full-length figures seated in a Georgian interior, engaged in conversation, playing backgammon and taking tea. The glistening and meticulously detailed tea set is a focal point of the painting and was used to indicate the family’s social status, as tea was a luxury commodity and the tea equipage expensive, but it also emphasized the sitter’s “polite status” as Ching-Jung Chen explains in her article in the British Art Journal. Taking tea was the most popular subject for conversation pieces initially, but from about 1730 other social activities, such as card-playing and backgammon, were depicted alongside tea-drinking. Backgammon was a fashionable game throughout the 18th century.

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Follower of Gawen Hamilton, Scottish 1698-1737- A conversation piece with elegant figures playing backgammon and taking tea in an interior; oil on canvas, 102x127cm Provenance: Private collection of Victor Aubrey Lownes III (April 17, 1928-January 11, 2017). Lownes was an executive for HMH Publishing Company Inc., later known as Playboy Enterprises, from 1955 through the early 1980s. Note: The conversation piece as a type of portrait painting became fashionable in England during the late 1720s and early 1730s. The present lot is typical for this genre, with an elegant group of full-length figures seated in a Georgian interior, engaged in conversation, playing backgammon and taking tea. The glistening and meticulously detailed tea set is a focal point of the painting and was used to indicate the family’s social status, as tea was a luxury commodity and the tea equipage expensive, but it also emphasized the sitter’s “polite status” as Ching-Jung Chen explains in her article in the British Art Journal. Taking tea was the most popular subject for conversation pieces initially, but from about 1730 other social activities, such as card-playing and backgammon, were depicted alongside tea-drinking. Backgammon was a fashionable game throughout the 18th century.

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Sale price
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Time, Location
24 Nov 2020
UK, London
Auction House
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