An attractive and delicately painted eighteenth-century portrait miniature of a young woman wearing a vivid turquoise-blue gown with a low, lace-trimmed neckline. Her dark hair is softly dressed beneath a white cloth headdress, and she is portrayed against a muted grey background.

The portrait is particularly appealing for the softness of its execution. The sitter's pale complexion, blue eyes and gently smiling expression are modelled with subtle transitions of colour, giving the miniature an intimate and remarkably natural quality.

English School, provisionally circa 1740–1760. The restrained composition, informal head covering and delicate handling suggest the middle decades of the eighteenth century, although a precise date and artist attribution remain open to further research.

The reverse contains an unusually attractive arrangement of human hair in two contrasting colours, dark brown and light brown, carefully interlaced beneath glass. Such hairwork was associated with affection, remembrance and personal attachment. The use of contrasting colours may indicate hair belonging to two individuals.

The miniature is mounted in a plain, polished gilt-metal pendant frame with a suspension loop. The present setting and elaborate hairwork may be later than the portrait itself, possibly dating from the late eighteenth or early nineteenth century, when portrait miniatures were frequently adapted as intimate pieces of personal jewellery.

An evocative Georgian jewel, combining a softly painted portrait with an elaborate and deeply personal example of sentimental hairwork.

Origin: Probably English

Date: Portrait provisionally circa 1740–1760

Artist: English School, unidentified

Frame: Gilt metal with suspension loop, possibly later

Reverse: Interlaced hair in two contrasting colours beneath glass

Dimensions: 5cms high not including bail 4cms wide