Enigmatic portrait miniature,painted en grisaille. At first I thought it was a typical grisaille watercolour but the portrait is hand coloured on a raised relief and then drawn a technique I have never encountered before.
The portrait poignantly depicts Nicholas Lechmere born 1750.
He was born in Fownhope,Herefordshire,the son of Scudamore Letchmere (1711-1761)and Jane Letchmere(1716-1773).
Nicholas Lechmere grew up in Fownhope Court,a fine gabled Jacobean Manor House six miles from Hereford. Though I can find no memorial to him(apart from the locket)there are beautiful marble monuments in St.Mary’s Church,Fownhope to his grandfather,his younger brother and his nephew.
The inscription reads Lost at Sea.