This oval miniature portrait of Robert Emmet, possibly painted during his lifetime, made £3,600 at hammer at Gorringe’s online sale of miniatures and silhouettes this week over a top estimate of £500 after a bidding battle involving potential buyers from Ireland, the UK and beyond. The purchaser, Belfast born David Anderson, Honorary Visiting Professor, Wales Governance Centre, Cardiff University, is based in Lewes and hopes to gift it to an appropriate museum in Ireland. He is in the process of reaching out to find out what interest there is in it.
There are mysteries around this well painted miniature by an unknown artist consigned to the sale by a local vendor in Sussex which came up as lot 214. The old and worn gold locket it is contained in has engravings which raise several questions. It reads on top: ‘Robert Emmet Born 21st May 1872′ (in fact Emmet was born on March 4, 1778). The lower wording – “Executed 20th September 1803’ – is correctly dated. The name ‘Thomas Addis Emmit’ is verso with a handwritten label reading: ‘Gold – Robert Emmett, Irish Patriot, Executed 1893, Aged only 25!’ The name Emmet is incorrectly spelt with two ‘t’s’. Though inaccurate, misspelling of a name is not unusual. Cork born Thomas Addis Emmet (1764-1827), Robert Emmet’s eldest brother, was a senior member of the United Irishmen who became a staunchly abolitionist Attorney General of New York
Back in Belfast linen weavers acted as one of the epicentres of the United Irishmen. More than two centuries ago the family of the purchaser David Anderson were linen weavers. Though not wealthy they gifted £2 towards the building of an anti British Presbyterian Church.
The only known portrait of Robert Emmet is a watercolour miniature on ivory by John Comerford. Painted during Emmet’s trial it was transferred to the National Gallery of Ireland by a descendant in 1970.
