The remarkable collection of paintings possessed by the Society of Antiquaries deserves to be better known. Among its rarities is one of the most important groups of early royal portraits formed before the foundation of the National Portrait Gallery (NPG) in 1859. In addition, there are portraits of other British sitters of note, together with a few foreigners and some religious images. The majority of these date from before 1707, the foundation date of the Society. The collection was last catalogued by George Scharf, first Director of the NPG, in 1865. Consequently, the long-awaited appearance of a new catalogue is cause for celebration. Some of the early paintings catalogued in the new volume were included in the 300th Anniversary touring exhibition Making History: antiquaries in Britain 1707–2007; for example, the unique diptych featuring Old St Paul’s (cat. no. 77), which represents the cathedral before its partial modernisation by Inigo Jones in the 1630s, as well as a plea for its restoration. Whereas in 2007 the discussion was necessarily short, this catalogue provides the opportunity for a thorough exploration, complete with transcriptions of its lengthy inscriptions.

As Sir Roy Strong points out in the Foreword, the delay means that this volume has benefited from technological advances, such as dendrochronology, which have established revised dates for certain items. Those technical investigations, as well as the publication itself, have been supported by individuals and trusts, as Maurice Howard notes in the Preface. One of the beneficiaries of this is the portrait of Henry VII (cusped) (cat. no. 8) for which tree-ring dating ‘has recently revised the date’ to 1501–9, confirming its production during his lifetime. Conservation work and removal of overpaint on The Great Fire of London (cat. no. 79) shows that Scharf’s dating was incorrect and the picture was ‘probably painted shortly after the Fire’.

The volume contains essays by each of the authors: Bernard Nurse discusses the role of portraits in the Society’s history; Pamela Tudor-Craig expands earlier research on the life of the collector Thomas Kerrich, whose bequest brought some of the earliest portraits to the Society; and Jill Franklin writes on the extraordinary group of nine ‘arch-topped’ portraits by various artists, among the twenty-five paintings bequeathed by Kerrich. These essays are followed by the catalogue itself, divided into six sections: British portraits before 1660, Continental portraits before 1660, Devotional subjects, Icons, British antiquaries and Topographical views, with detailed discussions of each work. The entries all include useful biographical material on the painters, where their identity is known. The volume is generously illustrated, with full colour reproductions of all the Society’s paintings and excellent comparative illustrations throughout, the latter playing an invaluable role in establishing a proper context for the works discussed. One minor quibble is that in some, but not all, of the catalogue entries, the text precedes the photograph and this can be confusing where that is juxtaposed with an image from the previous catalogue entry, as occurs for example in the case of cat. no. 10, where the adjacent illustration is of the same sitter. Puzzlingly, the photograph of Jonathan Richardson’s portrait of Martin Folkes (cat. no. 60) is shown in the opposite orientation to that in the 2007 catalogue. The catalogue is followed by three appendices: missing paintings, a concordance of titles and catalogue numbers and a list of exhibitions in which the paintings have been displayed. As the book is heavy, no doubt a consequence of the excellent illustrations, the decision to place the footnotes in the margins of the page is to be welcomed. A few examples from the catalogue have been chosen for discussion here.

The Kerrich bequest of 1828 certainly ‘transformed’ the Society’s previously small collection. It included the portrait of Mary I by Hans Eworth, which must be considered among the Society’s most treasured possessions (cat. no. 15). New research and a detailed consideration of the jewellery worn by the Queen results in the proposal that the date should be revised to early in 1554, before her marriage to Philip of Spain in view of the absence of a wedding ring (visible in the portrait of 1554 by Anthonis Mor, Museo del Prado). Mor himself is the author of an outstanding portrait of his former master, the painter Jan van Scorel (cat. no. 32), described here as ‘one of the most powerful portraits of his career’. The catalogue entry explores in detail the complex history of the painting’s original location as part of Scorel’s tomb monument and the puzzling inscription, which in fact conceals Mor’s signature and the date of 1559.

The Society’s collection is unlike many other assemblages of images of monarchs in containing a number of original works datable to the lifetimes of the sitters, rather than the numerous groups elsewhere which may be described as imaginative portraiture. Among the Continental portraits before 1660, Kerrich bequeathed a portrait of François I (cat. no. 29), which is considered to be ‘unique, since no other versions are known’, even though it may be a copy of a lost original. It was almost certainly painted before the famous meeting with Henry viii at the Field of the Cloth of Gold as François is shown beardless. The other early foreign work in the bequest, also categorised as unique, is the portrait of Mary of Austria (cat. no. 30), the sister of Charles v, attributed to Hans Maler, the catalogue entry for which is particularly rich in comparative illustrations.

Among the Devotional works, St Martin and the Beggar (cat. no. 34) is one of the earliest paintings on cloth (probably linen) to survive in this country, although they were once numerous to judge from inventory references. However, the most remarkable work in this section is undoubtedly the Dream of the Virgin (cat. no. 33), by Simone dei Crocifissi, which entered the collection at the relatively late date of 1938 (and is now on renewable loan to the National Gallery). Here again, conservation work has removed the alterations that almost certainly took place after its removal from a presumed polyptych in order to convert it into a stand-alone painting. Its exceptionally rare iconography, in which the Virgin Mary dreams of the Crucifixion and the emergence of Adam and Eve from Hades, makes this the most exceptional work in the Society’s collection.

The most recent addition to the collection is the portrait of Charles Lennox, 2nd Duke of Richmond (cat. no. 63), presented in 1995, which admirably continues the tradition of representations of the antiquaries themselves.

This beautifully produced volume will be a most welcome addition to the shelves of all those conducting research in these fields, but particularly in early British portraiture.