Lot 9: Peter Cross (British, c.1650-1724)

Carey (née Fraser), Countess of Peterborough, wearing blue dress and white underslip, her hair falling over her shoulders
on vellum, signed on obverse with monogram PC, silver-gilt frame, the reverse with Hickson Collection label
Oval, 87mm. (3 3/8ins.) high
Provenance: The S. H. V. Hickson Collection, no.33
Sotheby's, 29 March 1965

Carey, daughter of Sir Alexander Fraser Bt., physician to the King and Mary, daughter of Sir Ferdinando Carey, was the 1st wife of Charles Mordaunt, 3rd Earl of Peterborough. They married c.1678, when Carey was about 20 years old. She was maid of honour to Queen Catherine.

For further portrait miniatures of Carey, see the Charles Lees Collection, Bonhams, 20 November 1997, lot 20 (by Christian Richter) and the Edward Grosvenor Paine Collection, Christie's, 28 October 1980, lot 40 (by Peter Cross).