Message:

<p>[QUOTE=&quot;mirana, post: 9611913, member: 79705&quot;]Ah never assume that what you are told about a work of art is true unless the seller has provenance (documents, records, photographs, etc.) to prove their claims. It&#039;s nice as a starting point, but as you probably know, family stories get lost to time or even exaggerated. My own elders can&#039;t always pin down the history of something they bought, let alone who owned something from where in the family.</p><p><br /></p><p>Let&#039;s say you are right it came from Ireland, and is on verifiable English wood. This piece has been re-lined, so the stretchers may not be original. Many works of art traveled north during grand tours and the periods of fanatical art collecting. </p><p><br /></p><p>If we have no provenance, then it&#039;s best to assess the work with what it depicts, how it was constructed, and any labels it may have.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Numbers are usually for dates, if it is a number. Colon is not an abbreviation for a date/number that I know of and the convention of adding a word signifying a date (IE &quot;Anno&quot;) usually means it is smaller, separate, or on another line than the name, which is the more important part.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Yeah, that would be a later re-touching or over-paint probably done when they trimmed and re-lined the canvas. A good light and some magnification will probably make it clear which letters are original, given the deterioration. </p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Aah, bought to flip. Well I would advise you to submit it to an appropriate auction house to see what they say and perhaps they can identify it for you. It is not of Mary Queen of Scots. It doesn&#039;t look like her or her specific fashion, and (to me) is more like the Spanish style of painting than English for these types of works. Maria/Mary is (as you probably know) an extremely common name from this period in all of Christendom. It lacks REGINA and appears to be a Spanish name. I would approach a Spanish auction house, if not an International one.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

Your name or email address:

Do you already have an account?

• No, create an account now.
• Yes, my password is:
• Forgot your password?

Stay logged in