Lot 203: Charles Philips , London 1708 - 1747 portrait of a gentleman, full length, seated playing a cello, a spinet behind oil on canvas, held in a British Baroque frame

oil on canvas, held in a British Baroque frame

measurements note 44 by 34.5 cm., 17½ by 13¾ in.

R. Leppert, Music and Image, 1988, p. 132 (illus)

Mrs. M. Bibby, by whom sold Sotheby's London, 12 March 1979, lot 76 (bt. McAlpine);
His sale at Fawley House Sotheby's, 14th October 2003, lot 433

PROPERTY FROM AN IMPORTANT PRIVATE COLLECTION
This portrait is clearly intended to celebrate the sitter's devotion to music. Not only is he portrayed playing music on his cello but a spinet by Ladyman of London is depicted behind him. The spinet was essentially a woman's instrument strongly suggesting that the female members of his family are also musical.

John Ladyman was a spinet-maker in London during the early part of the eighteenth century. He was born c. 1693, being baptised that year in Southwark. He served as an apprentice to Thomas Barton in 1708, and was given the freedom of the Joiner's Company in 1725. The date of his death is unrecorded but is known to be before 1745. Only two spinets made by him are known to have survived (see D. Boalch, Makers of the Harpsichord and Clavichord 1440-1841, 1995).