100 



REPORT ON PORTRAIT OF ANTHONY PAYNE, PAINTED BY 

 Sir GODFREY KNELLER (1646-1723). 



This portrait was placed in my hands by the Council of this 

 Institution in October, 1902, for cleaning. 



In Gilbert's " History of Cornwall," vol. I, the frontispiece 

 is a mezzotint of the above portrait, engraved in 1816 or 1817 

 (Grilbert's History was published in 1817) by Mr. Young at the 

 British Institution, Pall Mall. By comparison I noted that the 

 halberd-top was quite different in the engraving and the painting. 

 I therefore commenced to clean this portion and found that since 

 the engraving was made the picture had been re-painted. This 

 work I entirely removed, and found underneath, in good condition, 

 the original work of Kneller. In vol. X of the journal of this 

 Institution is an article on this portrait and an account of Payne, 

 with a poor engraving made from a photograph of the picture 

 taken by Mr. Argall of Truro in 1890, where can be seen 

 the shape of the halberd-top which I removed. Mr. Argall has 

 fortunately preserved the negative, which clearly shows the shape 

 of the halberd when the picture was brought to me. The 

 cleaning of this portion revealed the fact that the whole picture 

 had been shamefully treated by some one, who had, in addition 

 to badly painting several parts, covered the whole picture with a 

 coat of varnish to which had been added some brown matter, 

 probably oil-colour, thus giving the picture an old appearance, 

 but effectually covering up all the beautiful original work. 



There is no doubt whatever that this work had been done 

 since the restoration which Mr. Gilbert had made by Mr. Parker 

 as mentioned in Sir John Maclean's notes on C. S. Gilbert, 

 Journal E.I.C., vol. 6, page 348 ; otherwise the halberd-top 

 would have appeared different in Mr. Young's engraving. That 

 Mr. Parker's restoration was not a complete one may be seen 

 from the backgj-ound on the right-hand side of the figure, where 

 I have disclosed the shape of the end of the gun, the rocky and 



